Listen to this article

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co.) announced on July 20 that through its recent acquisition of Velano Vascular it has taken a step forward in transforming the patient experience through a vision of a “One-Stick Hospital Stay.”

Building on its history of innovation and leadership in blood collection and vascular access solutions, Franklin Lakes-based BD said Velano Vascular and its innovative, needle-free technology allows health care providers to eliminate multiple needlesticks for blood sample collection.

San Francisco-based Velano Vascular’s FDA-cleared PIVO device allows for certain low-acuity patients to only have one “stick” for their entire hospital stay. The blood draws from existing peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) lines, reduce the pain and discomfort from the process while delivering quality outcomes and increased patient satisfaction.

“As a global leader in vascular access solutions and blood collection, BD has been on the forefront of innovations that improve the patient experience and reduce additional needlesticks,” said Rick Byrd, president of medication delivery solutions for BD. “Now, with the addition of Velano and its groundbreaking technologies, we can envision a world where a ‘One-Stick Hospital Stay’ could be a reality for many by making the numerous inpatient blood draws better for everyone.

“The acquisition of Velano adds an innovative, needle-free blood draw technology to our portfolio, that will reduce pain and discomfort from multiple needlesticks. Creating a whole new standard of care,” Byrd continued.

Blood draws by venipuncture and inserting PIVCs are two of the most commonly performed procedures in hospitals. Needlesticks affect nearly every hospitalized patient daily and are typically associated with some level of pain and anxiety for patients, especially with successive sticks. Approximately 90% of hospitalized patients require IV therapy and 95% of these devices are PIVCs.

With best practice in vascular access, the PIVC blood draw experience can be reinvented through PIVO to help health care providers deliver higher quality care and improve patient satisfaction and outcomes.

BD hopes to have this technology become the global standard of care for patients, however, Byrd said it is a transformative shift in health care and how this procedure has always been done.

“While our teams are excited to get out there and share it with hospitals and health systems across the U.S., we also know that change can take time,” he said. “We’ll hit the ground running but expect this will be a multi-year transformation process.”

Local practice

Nationally, the technology is currently used in places like Sutter Health, Intermountain Healthcare, Henry Ford Health Care, Virginia Mason, but here in New Jersey, Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck has adopted BD’s technology.

“I do not recall a single patient care alteration in how normal patient care is delivered that has had such an incredibly positive impact on patient experience,” Michael Maron, president and chief executive officer of Holy Name Medical Center, told NJBIZ. “I think we grossly underestimated and did not pay attention to just how awful the needle stick experience for patients was on any given day. And what PIVO has really proven is that the stick was extremely disruptive to individuals and not cherished at all. And so by alleviating it down to a single stick has just been incredible.”

BD said that by potentially removing multiple, individual needlesticks from blood collection health care workers can deliver a transformative difference in care not only for patients, but for providers too. What can be a very unpleasant and anxiety-inducing procedure for a patient, with multiple pokes and prods at all hours of the day and night, is now a more compassionate one.

“There is an overall efficiency of blood draws that go with it,” Maron continued. “And so the staff now are extremely more productive than they were in the past because they’re not fighting to find veins when they draw blood. They can draw blood while patients are sleeping, they don’t have to awaken them. It just makes the entire experience, extremely efficient, and just off-the-charts positive when it comes to patients’ overall satisfaction, and improvement to their experience.”

“Since inception, we have long championed a more compassionate vision for quality vascular care for every patient in every hospital anywhere in the world,” said Eric Stone, co-founder of Velano Vascular, in a prepared statement. “By joining forces with BD, we can collectively accelerate the impact of our work to more rapidly make this shared vision of a ‘One-Stick Hospital Stay’ a reality.”

Velano is the fifth tuck-in acquisition that BD has completed in fiscal 2021, consistent with the company’s growth strategy to enter new categories that address unmet needs and deliver higher impact to patients and health systems. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.