The award-winning I.V. House was created for nurses by a nurse experienced in emergency room care. This revolutionary product represents a giant step in the practice of atraumatic care and patient satisfaction.

• Engineered as a primary prevention safety device
I.V. House, Inc. products, the original dome only version and the new I.V. House UltraDressing™, eliminate the need for a needle to restart an IV that has been accidentally removed.

I.V. House, Inc. has recently won three awards in medical technology arena for the new I.V. House UltraDressing™. View Awards

• Extends dwell times
At a cost of 10¢ per hour, I.V. House reduces complications like dislodgment, phlebitis, infiltration and extravasation and can greatly decrease the need for costly and traumatic reinsertions. In fact, a 600-bed hospital could save $405,000 in just one year by protecting insertions with the I.V. House UltraDressing. Calculate your savings. Protecting a successful IV insertion can be especially reassuring to needle phobic patients and small children.

• May eliminate the need for some restraints
The I.V. House UltraDressing is the gentle, humane way to help prevent your geriatric and pediatric patients from picking at or pulling out their catheters.

• Eliminates exposed looping, a primary cause of dislodgments.
With the over-and-above protection of I.V. House, painful snagging on clothing, bedding or furniture is a thing of the past.

• Minimizes tape while maximizing protection of IV site and patient's skin
Tape removal not only hurts, it can cause skin irritation, epidermal stripping or even dislodgment. The animated hand on the home page of this website demonstrates a tape-on-tape procedure that reduces over-taping an IV site. This method of taping also protects of the integrity of the transparent dressing properties, for example, the moisture vapor transfer, by eliminating excess tape on the dressing.

• Vented, transparent dome permits continuous IV access & assessment.
Over-taping, gauze or cohesive wraps can obscure the IV site, causing nurses to miss crucial, early signs of trouble. But with I.V. House’s transparent plastic dome, you’ll always have uninterrupted access.

• Adjustable Velcro® closure on resealable "glove" eliminates over-taping of fragile skin
Adjustable, resealable Velcro® tab eliminates the need to tape the device in place and prevents over-taping of fragile skin. The tab also allows for easy, anytime IV site inspection.

• Ergonomic design fits either hand.
Designed by Metaphase, the world's leading ergonomic experts for handheld products, the I.V. House UltraDressing fits like a glove and humanizes what is too often a cold, sterile, frightening medical experience. The I.V. House UltraDressing is the first site protector that reduces patient anxiety and increases personal comfort while simultaneously adding to the hospital's profit line.

• Single-use, latex free

Marcia Ryder: Vascular Access/Intravenous Therapy
Recognizing the seriousness of vascular access, a most concise description of this therapy was stated by Marcia Ryder PhDc MS RN, Research, Consulting and Education in Vascular Access, and Nancy Donaldson PhD RN, Director, Center for Research and Patient Care Innovation at UCSF/Stanford. Their joint statement reads as follows:
Consider the following:

1. Vascular access is a high volume, high risk, high cost therapy
2. Vascular access spans across the continuum.....preemie to elderly and virtually all patient populations in all healthcare settings (hospital to outpatient clinic to long-term care facilities to home)
3. Complications of Vascular Access Devices (VADs) result in
substantial morbidity, increased length of stay, increased costs, and increased liability, therefore effective VAD care is critical to patient care quality, outcomes and costs
4. Evidence does not exist to support all VAD related practice(s)
5. As a result, practice policies, procedures and guidelines are an
integration of evidence, expert opinion, rational extrapolation, and
conservative good sense
6. Hence clinical oversight and perpetual quality and outcomes monitoring is vital!

Traditional IV teams as historically structured are probably no longer the most effective method to meet the current demand. Given the above, the most prudent approach at this time seems to be to manage vascular access as a formally structured, multidisciplinary continuous quality improvement effort including a VAD CQI committee and a clinical vascular access team. This requires rethinking, reengineering and refocusing of efforts.

Download these documents to learn more,
A Good Investment in Patient Care
Vascular Access: It's More than IV Insertion
Nursing Innovation and Patient Advocacy
I.V. House: Saving Lines... And So Much More