Infusion Specialty Program

Your agency must abide by the policies and procedures set forth in the most recent (2011 as of this writing) Infusion Nursing Standards of Practice in order to maintain accreditation and comply with state regulations. Those nursing agencies that follow these best practices are generally recognized as the best agencies.

Our policies and procedures are based on the best practices described in the IN Standards of Practice (INS) manual. Included in this manual are the following:

• Administration of Inotropic Therapy
• Anti-Microbial Administration
• Competency Evaluation Program
• Home Infusion Standards
• Parenteral Pain Management
• Pediatric Infusion Therapy
• Procedures for Home Infusion
• Total Parenteral Nutrition
• Vascular Access Devices

Nurses’ involvement in infusion therapy treatments has been highly specialized. Infusion nurses are critical members of each patient’s infusion therapy care team. Nurses are intimately involved in coordinating the patient’s care plans and other details with another critical part of the team, the infusion pharmacy.

For these reasons, infusion nurses need to have the clinical skills required for this nursing specialty. The best practices for infusion therapy are described in the Intravenous Nurse Society Standards of Practice (INS).

Nurses who administer infusion therapy to patients in the patient’s home have the additional responsibility of making sure the patient is properly educated, as well as monitoring and training the patient on proper infusion therapy procedures.

The infusion nursing agency is responsible for selecting its staff based on their education, experience, and competency in having completed specialized training, in accordance with the job description. Agencies are responsible for their infusion nurses’ competency and specialized training to perform the duties they’ll be expected to perform.

By purchasing Policies and Procedures as part of your staff’s infusion nurse training, you’ll have access to screening tools that help you assess your staff’s competency in specialized infusion therapy skills. In the course of the training seminar, experienced infusion nurses also validate the competency of the seminar’s attendees. Attendees who successfully complete the seminar will receive a competency checklist, validated by an experienced nurse, to add to their personnel files.

The Home Infusion Therapy Training program will help you start and maintain a successful home infusion therapy agency with the following areas of focus:

• Identifying and completing payer contracts
• Market analysis
• Marketing tips
• Reimbursement rates
• Staff selection

Home infusion therapy is recognized by most commercial health care plans as a medical services. They generally reimburse for infusion therapy as a medical benefit rather than a prescription drug benefit. Therefore, infusion therapy is usually paid per diem for clinical services, equipment, and supplies. Drugs and nursing visits are paid separately.

Payers typically require both infusion pharmacies and infusion nursing agencies to be accredited with ACHC, CHAP, JCAHO, or another national accreditation organization.

Medicare Part A covers home nursing visits for infusion therapy if the service is provided by a home health agency certified by Medicare, if the patient is considered homebound, and the patient needs intermittent, rather than 24-hour, nursing care. By purchasing the Infusion Program from 21st Century Health Care Consultants, you’ll have access to all the materials you need to meet or exceed the standards to be certified by Medicare.