Home intravenous therapy: Part I--Issues

Concerns related to providing home intravenous therapy were among the top ten clinical problems identified by Northwest Medicare-certified home care agencies in a 1986 survey. This paper addresses issues related to home intravenous therapy and provides lists of resources for the development of home intravenous therapy programs. Part I of the paper covers concerns related to intravenous therapy as expressed by home care agencies in the Northwest and synthesized the literature about home intravenous therapies. Survey results are presented, followed by a discussion of client and caregiver concerns. These include: discharge planning, client admission criteria and client and caregiver education. Standards, staffing, and staff education issues are discussed followed by sections on economics, marketing regulations and legal and ethical concerns. Finally, there is a discussion of issues related to specific types of intravenous therapies: parenteral nutrition, antibiotic therapy; chemotherapy; blood and blood component therapy and other less frequently used types of intravenous therapies. Each therapy is discussed with regard to complications, client and caregiver instruction and financial considerations. Part II of the paper is a resource guide which lists resources that agencies may use to develop a home intravenous therapy program. In the first section, national organizations and journals and books concerned with intravenous therapy are listed as well as journal articles, guidelines and guidebooks and client and provider educational materials. National and regional product and service representatives of intravenous therapy related companies are also listed. In the second section, addresses for the State Boards of Nursing are given for Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Each state section includes a list of those agencies who indicated in the 1988 survey that they would be willing to share materials. In addition, product and service vendors of intravenous therapy supplies and equipment are listed for the State of Washington.