Leading Children’s Hospital Embraces Vein Illumination as a Standard of Care

Professionals at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics using 32 AccuVein AV300 vein visualization devices to provide “Best Care Possible”

Long Island, NY, June 13, 2012 – Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, is one of only 60 hospitals in the country solely dedicated to the care of patients under the age of 18. Children’s Mercy is the only freestanding children’s hospital located between St. Louis and Denver, also has the distinction of being among the most innovative with its large scale adoption of AccuVein vein illumination. Children’s Mercy recently incorporated 32 AV300’s into their standard of care across the facility. AccuVein Inc., is the global leader in vein illumination and the creator of the AV300, the world’s only hand-held, non-contact vein visualization device.

Children’s Mercy serves more than 15,000 in-patients annually along with 327,000 out-patient visits and 142,500 emergency room and urgent care visitors per year. With such an active facility the administrators, doctors and nurses are always seeking medical technologies and devices, such as the award-winning AccuVein AV300, that can improve and streamline patient care.

With almost a dozen years on the nursing team at Children’s Mercy, Robin Starr, RN, BSN, MBA, CPN, CMRP, has been a part of the hospital’s dynamic growth. In addition to her PRN shifts in the Emergency Room, Starr also performs value analysis, providing information and recommendations for new devices and technologies.

“Our strategic goals compel us to take every measure possible to decrease the chance of infection and reduce pain, both physical and psychological. We have an obligation to our patients to be equipped with the most effective tools to provide the highest level of care and service,” said Starr.

Tammy Lightner, RN, MHA, has many years of experience as a vascular access nursing specialist and while there are other devices on the market, she says none has provided the vein-viewing quality and ease-of-use of the AV300. “We’ve found the AV300 to be very helpful in locating superficial veins for blood draws and IV’s,” said Lightner, who manages the vascular access department. “The AV300 is lightweight and the veins are easy to see with the device.”

The reaction of the Children’s Mercy professionals is consistent with the findings of the Patient Satisfaction Survey recently released by AccuVein. With patient satisfaction being a key and growing measure of success in healthcare today, because of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals will be paid for inpatient acute care services based upon care quality, not just the quantity of the services provided. This will create even more competition between hospitals to satisfy patients, with those garnering the best scores receiving more money.

AccuVein’s study found that 93% of patients would give a hospital a higher satisfaction score if vein illumination were utilized. Furthermore, 94% of patients expressed the desire to have vein illumination used each time they were stuck, suggesting a desire to have a facility-wide adoption of the technology. In fact, patients felt so strongly about the technology that they said they would be willing to drive an extra 14 miles to go to a hospital that used a vein visualization device such as the AV300.

In addition, patients expressed positive feelings about the caregivers using vein illumination. Specifically, 98% of patients said they would appreciate the extra effort of a medical care provider who used vein illumination, a strong indication that the use of a vein visualization device could facilitate a more positive nurse/patient interaction.

Venipuncture is the most common invasive medical procedure worldwide, with an estimated 2.7 million procedures conducted every day in the United States alone. Studies show that up to one third of the attempts to access a vein fail the first time, creating unnecessary patient discomfort as well as additional costs. Patients overwhelmingly endorse vein illumination because it improves caregivers’ ability to access veins. It does this by projecting a safe pattern of light on a patient’s skin that reveals the position of underlying veins.

For more information about the AccuVein AV300 or to request a copy of the Patient Preference Survey go to https://www.accuvein.com.

About AccuVein Inc.
AccuVein Inc. is a global leader in vein illumination. Its breakthrough product, the AV300, allows health care professionals to see a map of peripheral veins on the skin’s surface with the goal of improving vascular access procedures including blood draw, IV infusion and blood donation.
The AV300 is the world’s only portable, non-contact vein illumination solution. It is built on AccuVein’s proprietary technology as embodied in its growing patent portfolio that covers a broad range of imaging and medical diagnostic technologies.
The AV300 is in use at more than 2,000 hospitals and available for sale in 100 countries worldwide. To see a demonstration of vein illumination with the AV300, please visit accuvein.com.

About Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics
Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, located in Kansas City, Mo., is one of the nation’s top pediatric medical centers. The 319-bed hospital provides care for children from birth through the age of 18, and has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of “American’s Best Children’s Hospitals” and recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center with Magnet designation for excellence in nursing services. Its faculty of 600 pediatricians and researchers across more than 40 subspecialties are actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research, and educating the next generation of pediatric subspecialists. For more information about Children’s Mercy and its research, visit childrensmercy.org or download our mobile phone app CMH4YOU for all phone types. For breaking news and videos, follow us on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

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