Electrocardiography cables and lead wires are a critical component of monitoring patients in healthcare settings, but are often inadequately cleaned, which is a significant contributor to surgical-site infections, according to the American Journal of Infection Control.
Cleaning materials can also deteriorate the quality of ECG lead wires and result in false alarms on hospital floors, which can increase alarm fatigue among clinical staff.
During a May 12 webinar sponsored by Cardinal Health and hosted by Becker's Hospital Review, Peter Mallow, PhD, director of clinical outcomes and economics at Xavier University in Cincinnati, and Marilyn Welling, interim manager at Bay Area Hospital in San Francisco, discussed how single-use ECG lead wires can help reduce alarm fatigue and mitigate the risk of surgical-site infections, which can contribute to cost-savings for healthcare facilities.
Burdens of reusable ECG lead wires
Clinical staff have to listen out for alarms on several patient monitoring systems, which can become overwhelming, according to Dr. Mallow. Alarm fatigue desensitizes the sounds of alarms for clinical staff who may find it challenging to differentiate between urgent and false alarms, and can lead to interrupted care, compromised patient safety and burnout. Alarm fatigue ranked No. 6 in ECRI Institute's Top 10 Health Technology Hazards 2020 report for hospitals, medical practices and homecare providers.
The reuse of ECG lead wires are a large contributor to false alarms at healthcare facilities and addressing this can lead to significant advantages for patients and staff.
"Most ECG lead wires are reused more than 50 times, which leads to wear and tear that can degrade their quality over time," Dr. Mallow said. Common problems include broken lead wires, fragmented connector pins and frayed cords.
Reusable ECG lead wires are challenging to completely rid of bacteria, with cleaning materials also reducing their quality over time, resulting in poor connections and more false alarms. These cleaning protocols take valuable time away from nurses who would rather be taking care of patients, Ms. Welling said.
Hospital-acquired infections
In addition to alarm fatigue, providers also face the challenge of hospital-acquired infections, which account for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths annually.
"ECG lead wires are the last remaining reusable patient item that comes into direct contact with the patient's skin," Dr. Mallow said. "They are a vector for cross-contaminations and surgical-site infections, because despite properly cleaning them, they remain dirty and contaminated upwards of 75 percent of the time with drug-resistant organisms."
Surgical-site infections are one of the most common HAIs, costing an average of $21,000 in patient costs per infection.
"That's a tremendous burden at the individual institution level," Dr. Mallow said. "If we aggregate that across the U.S., we're talking about nearly $150 billion being spent annually trying to address HAIs."
Advantages of a single-use system
Single-use ECG cable and lead wire systems such as Kendall DL™ are designed for ease of use and to reduce surgical-site infections.
Once connected to the patient, the device stays with them for the length of their journey throughout the hospital, Ms. Welling said. The long lead wire is ideal for use in an ICU or an OR and is secured to the electrode with a pressure-less push button to ensure a secure fit, even for highly mobile patients.
Implementing single-use ECG cable and wire systems eliminates cleaning measures required for reusable systems, giving valuable time back to clinical staff to care for patients. Additional benefits include decreasing burnout of clinical staff, reducing the possibility of surgical-site infections and increased cost-savings for healthcare facilities.
Click here to listen to the full webinar.
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