Mobile vascular services that are staffed with nurses trained in providing intravenous (IV) drug treatment and other types of drug infusion therapies at home are growing in popularity due to the many benefits they offer.
Some medications are more effective or produce fewer side effects when administered by IV. For this reason, the medical professionals who work for these services travel to a patient's home to hook up a traditional IV line, central venous catheter, or a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line, and then provide them their needed medications through this line. In addition, they often train a patient and/or their caretaker on how to use this line to administer future medication doses needed.
Read on to learn about two of the many benefits of obtaining IV drug treatment from a mobile vascular service instead of obtaining these treatments in a traditional hospital or healthcare clinic setting.
1. Leave the Hospital Sooner
Before mobile vascular services became popular, patients who needed daily IV medication treatment after diagnosis of an infection or severe medical problem had no option other than to stay in the hospital to obtain their needed medications until their health problems resolved. Not surprisingly, some of these hospital stays could be lengthy. For example, a bone infection typically takes about six weeks of IV antibiotic treatment to eliminate the infection completely.
Now that mobile vascular service team members can administer IV medications in the home setting, these lengthy hospital stays can be reduced dramatically. While not everyone is a good candidate for this service, those that are can return to the comfort of their homes sooner and potentially reduce the cost of their hospital stay by keeping it as short as possible.
2. Reduce Outpatient Medical Bills and Co-Payments
While mobile vascular services provide antibiotic IV infusions and other treatments for acute medical problems, they also provide the routine drug infusions that many people with chronic health problems need.
While there are many IV medications that help treat chronic health problems, a common one is called intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) treatment. This medication type helps control many types of autoimmune diseases and other immune system problems. Not only can the regular trips to doctor's offices and or hospitals to obtain IVIG treatments be time consuming, but they can also be costly.
However, mobile vascular services tend to charge as much as 62 to 87 percent less for these needed IV medication treatments that other healthcare providers charge. For this reason, many people suffering from chronic health problems see a great reduction in their medical bills when they switch from traditional to mobile IV medication services.
Mobile vascular services are becoming more popular than ever, because their services help prevent the lengthy hospital stays often needed to obtain IV medication treatment and help ease the financial burden of living with a chronic health problem that can only be controlled with regular IV medication treatment.
For more information on mobile vascular services, contact a practice in your area.