Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections to be Focus of AVA Meeting

HERRIMAN, Utah -- Improvements in the prevention of catheter-related infections will be a prime focus at the annual conference of the Association for Vascular Access (AVA) in September.

The conference comes on the eve of major changes in Medicare that will eliminate payments to hospitals that fail to prevent certain hospital-acquired infections. AVA will hold its 22nd Annual Scientific Meeting Sept. 11-14 in Savannah, Ga. AVA is the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the emerging medical field of vascular access.

Among conference presentations on preventing vascular catheter-related infections:

-- Allan Morrison, Jr., MD, will describe the vision of an infection control program that can improve clinical outcomes and decrease infection rates, high-risk antibiotic use, hospital lengths of stay, and mortality. Morrison is hospital epidemiologist of the Inova Health System, Professor and Distinguished Senior Fellow at George Mason University’s Graduate School of Public Policy, and assistant clinical professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine.

-- Another general session presentation will concern the infection danger associated with long-term central vein catheters. The presenters, Stephen Ash, MD, FACP, and Deb Richardson, RN, MS, CNS, will review current data about the effect of catheter locks or coatings on the infection rates. The speakers will also examine the potential for these technologies to significantly reduce catheter-related infections in the future. Ash is chairman and director of Research at HemoCleanse and Ash Access Technology. Richardson heads Deb Richardson & Associates.

-- A poster presentation by Kari Love, RN, BS, will show how use of a closed luer access, split-septum device has eliminated catheter-related bloodstream infections for eight months in an adult medical-ICU population. The device replaced a positive-pressure mechanical valve. Love is a clinician at Jennie Edmundson Memorial Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

-- An interactive panel and audience discussion, featuring vascular access and infection control experts and titled “Building a Better Bundle,” will be aimed at devising a maximally effective vascular access bundle using evidence-based products and practices.