Color-Coded Labels Cued Nurses to Adhere to Central Line Connector Change

This study examined nurses' adherence to policies regarding needleless connector changes using a novel, day-of-the-week, color-coded label compared with usual care that relied on electronic medical record (EMR) documentation.

This was a prospective, comparative study.

The study was performed on 4 medical-surgical units in a seasonally fluctuating, 715-bed healthcare system composed of 2 community hospitals.

Convenience sample was composed of adults with central lines hospitalized for 4 or more days.

At 4-day intervals, investigators observed bedside label use and EMR needleless connector change documentation. Control patients received standard care-needleless connector change with associated documentation in the EMR. Intervention patients, in addition to standard care, had a day-of-the-week, color-coded label placed on each needleless connector. To account for clustering within unit, multinomial logistic regression models using survey sampling methodology were used to conduct Wald χ tests. A multinominal odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI) provided an estimate of using labels that were provided on units relative to usual care documentation of needleless connector change in the EMR.

In 335 central line observations, the units with labels (n = 205) had a 321% increase rate of documentation of needleless connector change in the EMR (odds ratio, 4.21; 95% CI, 1.76-10.10; P = .003) compared with the usual care control patients. For units with labels, when labels were present, placement of labels on needleless connectors increased the odds that nurses documented connector changes per policy (4.72; 95% CI, 2.02, 10.98; P = .003).

Day-of-the-week, color-coded labels cued nurses to document central line needleless connector change in the EMR, which increased adherence to the needleless connector change policy.

Providing day-of-the-week, color-coded needleless connector labels increased EMR documentation of timely needleless connector changes. Timely needleless connector changes may lower the incidence of central line-associated bloodstream infection.