Multicenter Study of Needle-Free Blood Collection System for Reducing Specimen Error and Intravenous Catheter Replacement

Inpatient hospital settings require access to high-quality blood specimens and durable peripheral intravenous (IV) catheters for patient care. The most common standard-of-care method for acquiring each blood specimen—venipuncture—often results in a non-negligible preanalytical error rate, patient discomfort, and tissue inflammation. In a 2-year, multicenter (23 hospitals) retrospective study, a novel blood collection system that collects blood specimens through existing inpatient IVs without a needle (PIVO, Velano Vascular) was compared with the current standard of care, in regards to its effect on specimen quality and IV catheter longevity. Using the PIVO(TM) device for blood collection decreased the rate of preanalytical errors by 56% compared with other collection methods, including venipuncture and conventional line draws. In addition, peripheral IV catheters that were used with PIVO(TM) for blood draws also had a 19% lower rate of replacement compared with those that did not. This is the largest study to date of PIVO use and demonstrates significant quality improvement outcomes compared with the current standard of care in blood collection, providing an opportunity to innovate inpatient hospital care.