Syracuse Post-Standard:
Hospital gets help from the VeinViewer
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
By Amber Smith
Excerpts from the article
Few, if any, people enjoy having blood drawn, but University Hospital is trying to make the experience less painful for people who have to have their blood drawn frequently.
Starting an IV is an art, says nurse practitioner Len Hurteau, patient service director for the interventional radiology department, which is using a new device called a VeinViewer, which uses near-infrared light and other technologies to locate veins and project their image onto the surface of the skin.
"You think you have a good vein. It feels that way," Hurteau says, explaining the art of starting intravenous lines. "This confirms it."
The VeinViewer is a portable machine that can be wheeled to patients' bedsides. It projects a roadmap of a person's vasculature, so nurses can choose the best spot on the best vein.
Hurteau says the device … was incorporated for patient comfort. The byproduct, however, "is that we can increase the amount of patients we can do in a day, if we can get everybody on the first try."
VienViewer belongs to the interventional radiology department, but it's shared throughout the hospital, especially on children or other patients with challenging veins.
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