Specialized Vascular Access Teams

Patients admitted to the hospital are exposed to invasive procedures and will receive various interventions from different professional roles all with different levels of experience: some with limited experience and some with extensive experience. In simple terms, an orthopaedic surgeon fixes your broken bones, a cardiologist attends to your heart, a geriatrician focuses on an older person’s care, and a vascular surgeon focuses on vascular surgery. It is fair to suggest that the performance of the vascular access device (VAD) can determine clinical outcomes within each of these select specialties. Yet, VAD insertion and care and maintenance are shared by a variety of healthcare professional disciplines, all with a variety of experiences, guided by local policy frameworks. Because of this interdisciplinary sharing, responsibility becomes fragmented, and ownership of outcomes is lacking leading to increased patient safety risks. One approach to reduce variation and improve clinical consistency is having VAD procedures performed by a specific team of healthcare professionals. This chapter will firstly identify the various definitions that make up a vascular access specialist team (VAST) and secondly the variety of evidence supporting the concept and what empirical guidelines say about it. Finally, it explores the use of VAST to promote comprehensive, integrated patient care and assurance that only well-trained clinicians who are qualified to select, insert and care for VADs can do so, promoting greater patient safety and positive patient outcomes.