Velano Vascular this past week made its new streamlined remote training program widely available for hospitals around the nation. Initially developed with existing partners utilizing its PIVO™ needle-free blood draw device in the fight against COVID-19, the platform is now available for additional hospitals and systems in need of streamlined care. The company is based in San Francisco, CA.
Velano Vascular notes a number of PIVO customers have already embraced an early iteration of the remote training capability, with one Pacific Northwest hospital in the midst of the U.S. outbreak deploying it to rapidly train more than 80 Registered Nurses (RN) within just 5-days. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, other hospitals have adopted Velano’s PIVO device with COVID-19 suspected or infected patients to help:
- Enable RN staff, who are already in the patient’s room, to effectively and easily draw high-quality lab samples – without requiring additional practitioners to enter COVID-19 rooms;
- Enforce social distancing standards and limit the number of practitioners that must interact with patients in a hospital, particularly at a time when the health and wellbeing of our caregivers is paramount to the health and wellbeing of our country;
- Maintain a continuum of high-quality blood samples for lab analysis to ensure accurate testing and diagnosis with a minimum of interruptions or delays.
“Enhanced remote training capability was crucial to expand the effective use of the PIVO procedure to facilities and nursing staff not yet using it within Sutter Health’s network with the specific intent of helping enhance clinical staff’s health and safety,” said Anna Kiger, DNP, DSc, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAONL, the Northern California integrated health system’s chief nurse officer.
To initiate or expand the proficient use of PIVO, Velano devised a tablet-based, two-way video interactive training capability for use at a patient’s bedside to teach practitioners how to conduct this novel procedure in lieu of live proctoring on-site at hospitals. The new service provides 24×7 coverage through a fleet of mobile tablets that allow for one-touch connections to Velano trainers and RNs for live, interactive bedside training on vascular access, blood draw support. Based on promising early results from this offering and from PIVO’s use in COVID environments, Velano has expanded its available PIVO inventory and rolled out the training for hospitals interested in rethinking blood draws and the associated training and onboarding for their isolation patients.
“The outbreak of COVID-19 and its resulting impact to health systems around the country has created a new opportunity for all of us to rethink how we can deliver care on behalf of patients and practitioners,” said Sutter Health Chief Innovation Officer Chris Waugh. “We appreciate the chance to work with other forward-thinking innovators to aid in our fight against COVID-19. These collaborations will serve an important model as we look ahead to the future of healthcare delivery.”
“Our mission continues to reflect the support of healthcare providers in the delivery of compassionate care, even in this rapidly changing and fluid environment,” said Velano Chief Executive Eric M. Stone. “As we witnessed our customers creatively and urgently respond to the COVID-19 outbreak while seeking new solutions to alleviate the strain on their systems and staff, it was essential to adapt rapidly in order to provide immediate assistance during these unprecedented times.”