LVAD Coordinator Danielle Barrager, RN, recently led the work to write an abstract about the Pulse Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) team’s decrease in driveline infection rates.
The Pulse LVAD team was able to decrease these infection rates due to the implementation of a new driveline dressing change protocol that came from Danielle’s work to collate best practices in this area. Danielle took the initiative to reach out to several LVAD programs, both domestically and internationally, to gather best practices, share them with the team and make changes to the Pulse protocol. She collaborated with multiple disciplines, including infectious disease, cardiothoracic surgery, advanced heart failure, nursing, quality and dressing change kit manufacturers.
Danielle was invited to present the abstract of this collaborative work at the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) conference in Boston in April of this year.
“We are very proud of her hard work on this project. She represented our LVAD Team and Pulse on the national level” said Advanced Heart Failure Program Manager Oakley Trotter.
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