Study Shows ICU Medical's SwabCap Reduced CLABSIs and Blood Culture Contamination

ICU Medical Inc. announces that a new study published in the December 2015 issue of the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology showed that the company's SwabCap® disinfecting cap for needlefree connectors reduced central line–associated bloodstream infections (HA-CLABSI) and blood culture contamination (BCC) among hematology-oncology patients.1 The study by clinicians at New York City's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center found that the reduction in HA-CLABSI and BCC using of SwabCap "corresponded to an annual savings of $3.2 million in direct medical costs."
  
Memorial Sloan Kettering's Mini Kamboj, MD, et al conducted a multiphase prospective study with two pre-intervention phases in which use of the SwabCap disinfecting cap resulted in a 34 percent decrease in hospital-wide HA-CLABSI rates and a 63 percent and 51 percent reduction in BCCs in high-risk units and general oncology units respectively. Based on their study findings with the SwabCap product, researchers concluded that the use of the product was "a practical and low-cost intervention for catheter care."
  
"Our study provides evidence on the efficacy of disinfection caps in reducing HA-CLABSI rates among high-risk cancer patients and promotes a hospital-wide reduction in contamination among blood cultures," the researchers said. "Because of the improved clinical outcomes and substantial cost savings associated with use of CVC disinfection caps, we recommend routine use of this device in hematology–oncology practices."
  
In commenting on the study in the January 8, 2016 New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch, deputy editor Richard T. Ellison III, MD said that "the use of these devices appears to carry no apparent risk, and the cost savings in reducing the rates of CLABSIs and contaminated blood cultures could markedly outweigh the added cost of these devices in most institutions."2
  
ICU Medical acquired the Excelsior Medical SwabCap disinfecting cap from RoundTable Health Partners in October 2015 as a complement to its complete line of needlefree IV connectors and specialty infusion products. 
    
1. Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 2015;36(12) :1401–1408
2. http://www.jwatch.org/na40059/2016/01/08/how-effective-are-iv-catheter-disinfection-caps
  
Source: ICU Medical, Inc.