Central lines are small plastic tubes that go into blood vessels to safely give medications and take blood work from patients. These tubes can become infected called a CLABSI (central line-associated blood stream infection). When they become infected in the hospital, it is called an inpatient CLABSI.
Our nurses are highly trained to safely use your child's central line. They will always use sterile gloves, special screw tops if your child's central line comes through the skin, and we will only take blood out of the central line or put medicines into the central line when necessary because we know that the less we use the line, the lower the risk of infection.
When a child has a CLABSI in the hospital, they can become very sick, they have to stay longer in the hospital, and the child's healthcare costs increase. Sometimes children have to have a procedure to change the central line. Parents usually have to give their children antibiotics through their central line several times per day for a week or so after going home from the hospital.
The chart below shows the rate of inpatient CLABSI (infections per 1000 catheter days). Each day that a child has a central line catheter counts as one catheter day. We compare ourselves to other children's hospitals participating in Solutions for Patient Safety.
