(E1) General Session: Vascular Access Device Assessment Liability-Navigating a Minefield Post-COVID

Most clinicians involved with vascular care are facing new and unprecedented legal challenges as understaffing and declining competencies post-COVID continue to create obstacles to compliance with the standards of practice. Nowhere is this more evident and more problematic than in the area of vascular access device assessment and care where impacts to staff post-COVID are rendering it nearly impossible to meet the requirements to providing defensible patient care. This presentation will examine the elements of the developing near perfect storm of potential liability for vascular clinicians including the knowledge of PIV failures and their associated patient impacts, awareness of clinical standards and the inability to comply with those standards, the legal criteria against which clinician action/inaction will be evaluated, and the overall increasing liability of clinicians post-COVID and post-Radonda Vaught. As a solution, several simple liability mitigation strategies for clinicians will be identified which will address these issues and should improve the quality of care.