Facilities must obtain the necessary supplies to aid in their ability to uphold safety, comfort, and efficient care practices to administer valuable and ethical patient care. Blood drawing is fundamental to offering reliable treatment plans and requires various devices for accuracy and safety. We’ll explore the benefits of using vacutainers for blood draws and how they optimize patient care.

Proper Use of a Vacutainer Set

The vacutainer set is a beneficial professional medical device that increases accuracy and safety. The set includes double-ended needles where one end is inserted into the patient, and the other is inserted into the collection tube. A butterfly-like plastic holder on the set's exterior allows optimal provider accuracy when inserting the double-ended needle in the patient's vein and the collection tubes.

Improved Patient and Provider Safety

In many cases, a patient's blood collection order requires multiple samples. A trained and educated phlebotomist will rely on the vacutainer set to complete multiple blood draws when ordered. The vein-inserted needle will remain in position, and the phlebotomist will swap the collection tubes—a full one for an empty one.

Vacutainer sets use a closed container method which eliminates the risk of spilling or intrusion of contaminants. This creates a safe and ethical blood draw approach for the patients and the providers who complete or handle the collection tubes. Exposure to blood-borne pathogens is often inadvertent but highly dangerous to the overseeing phlebotomist, so proper use of blood collection sets plays a fundamental role in health care.

Increased Accuracy

Typical blood draw systems require phlebotomists to use professional judgment to draw the required and accurate blood volume. This process leaves a lot of room for error or safety risks for the patient and the providers. While these typical methods are still used and practiced, a vacutainer set creates increased accuracy and further improves these efforts.

Each vacutainer set is specifically designed for optimal blood draws; it draws the blood at a slow, safe speed and discontinues the draw when the collection tube has the allotted volume. A viable speed, volume, and accuracy of the blood collection process reduce the risk of the patient experiencing hemolysis. This issue occurs when various cell structures are damaged from mishandling and occurs most often during the typical blood drawing process where vacutainers are not used.

Cascade Health Care is a leading provider of professional medical-grade tools and devices. We value each provider's and organization's need for accuracy in all patient-forward demands. Equip your facility and providers with high-quality vacutainers for safe and ethical blood draws.