Patient safety and comfort are always top of mind for clinicians. While drawing blood is often an important step in providing patient care, phlebotomists face a tough task. Many patients are uneasy with blood draws. In addition to having the people skills to excel, it is important for your staff to have the best tools. Disposable tourniquets are a great way to protect patient safety and increase patient comfort to deliver exceptional care.
Patient Safety
According to the World Health Organization, the occurrence of adverse events due to unsafe care is likely one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability in the world. In addition, they state health care-associated infections occur in 7 and 10 out of every 100 hospitalized patients in high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries respectively1.
One way to decrease the risk of infections is to use single-use products. While there are many tourniquet options on the market, Caresfield gives you multiple options to protect your patient safety.
First, our tourniquets are non-latex, which protects your patients from latex allergies. Secondly, we offer multiple sizes and textures which also help increase patient comfort and clinician preferences. Finally, a study by Ebright and colleagues2 found disjointed supply sources and missing supplies added to the complexity of nurses’ work.
Not only can Caresfield help reduce infections with disposable tourniquets, we also offer same day shipping of in-stock items. In the coming months, most of our disposable tourniquets will be made at our Minnesota headquarters.
Related: Caresfield – Making it Easy to Order Supplies Online
Patient Comfort
While protecting patient safety is always the top priority, managing their comfort is also a large part of your job. There are three main things to consider regarding patient safety: latex allergies, size and texture.
Latex allergies are becoming more common in healthcare settings. Not only are patients potentially affected, but many clinicians develop allergies due to repeated exposure. Our disposable tourniquets are non-latex. They are made in a facility where no products are made with natural rubber latex. By avoiding natural rubber latex, we help ensure our tourniquets are safe and comfortable.
Beyond the raw materials, the size of a tourniquet plays an important role in patient comfort. Your patients come in all sizes. If you only have a single size of tourniquet, your staff may be employing potentially risky hacks to serve patients. Caresfield offers infant, geriatric and bariatric sizes. See our specialty sized tourniquets on our website.
Another key point to consider is the texture of the tourniquet. Depending on your patients’ skin, you may need either a smooth or a textured tourniquet. For older patients with thinner skin, a textured tourniquet will be much more comfortable. A textured tourniquet applies less friction to the skin and can help prevent skin from tearing. Similarly, our bariatric tourniquets are wider than standard options, and spread the pressure across a wider surface area.
Having the right disposable tourniquets may help your patients feel more comfortable, so your clinicians can focus on providing care.
Clinician Preference
Together with patient safety and comfort, it’s important to consider clinician preferences when purchasing tourniquets. Some phlebotomists prefer smooth tourniquets, others tend to use textured. To meet the needs of both, you can consider the dual-texture Versaquet. This handy band is smooth on one side and textured on the other, giving clinicians flexibility to choose the best option for each patient.
Even packaging matters to clinicians. Some members of your team may prefer rolls of tourniquets with notch cuts, while others want individually rolled bands for mobile blood draw carts. The good news is no matter what options your clinicians prefer, Caresfield offers the perfect match. We offer disposable tourniquets in a variety of sizes, colors, textures and packaging options. Request a sample to see the difference tourniquets can make for patient safety and comfort!
Related: Supply Chain Solutions from Caresfield
Sources
- Patient Safety Fact Sheet, World Health Organization
- An Analysis of Nurses’ Cognitive Work: A New Perspective for Understanding Medical Errors, Advances in Patient Safety: From Research to Implementation (Volume 1: Research Findings), Patricia Potter,* Laurie Wolf, Stuart Boxerman, Deborah Grayson, Jennifer Sledge, Clay Dunagan, and Bradley Evanoff.
