The use of Vasc-Alert reports may help with goals including early identification of vascular access dysfunction, proactive/non-emergent referrals for evaluation, reduction in conversions to CVC’s, reduction in thrombectomies and improved quality in vascular access care and management.
Improvements over time should include:
- Decreased thrombosis rate
- Increased percentage of patients achieving prescribed blood flow rate
- Decreased CVC rate due to conversions
- Increased access life due to proactive referrals resulting in angioplasties instead of unexpected thrombectomies
- Improved adequacy
- Maintained or increased AV access patency
This is a comparison of 6 dialysis facilities looking at 11 months prior to Vasc-Alert implementation and 11 months post implementation. The method they used was to implement a protocol using the access risk score as the primary indicator of potential complication. As you can see, in this comparison of equal time periods, these centers were able to decrease the number of thrombosis by 33% and conversions from AV access to catheter events by 46% using Vasc-Alert as part of their vascular access management.
Does the Vasc-Alert surveillance device reduce access complications?
Conclusions: Vasc-Alert helped staff prioritize patients for referral and staff engagement made sure referrals were made, resulting in patients of higher risk being treated.