Investing in infusion nurse specialists

With a push toward outpatient services and changes in medical coverage, demand for outpatient infusion therapy nurses is expected to rise.

On the LSJ.com website Nancy Trick, past president of the Great Lakes chapter of the Infusion Nurses Society, said she thinks hospitals will begin investing in infusion therapy specialists, even though the number of infusion therapy nurses has remained relatively steady the past several years.

There are two factors that could lead to an increase, Trick said.

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that found intravenous therapy patients do better with specialized teams. And the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs in October are expected to stop paying for preventable infections such as those that could occur because of intravenous catheters.

“Hospitals have to get ready for this, and my belief is that they will bring back not a full-blown IV team. But they may bring back specialists that work on policies and procedures related to infusion therapy,” Trick said. “Prevention is always more cost effective than treatment.”

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