Over the years clinicians and companies have spent a great of energy and work on creating tube feeding systems that protect patients from the risk of receiving contaminated nutrition during tube feeding. The products developed - pumps, sets and containers - are designed primarily to create a closed system which reduces the amount of handling of the tubing and nutrition container, extends the length of time a bag of nutrition can be used and makes the process easier for stressed out nursing staffs in hospitals and nursing homes. These products create a closed fluid path for the nutrition to travel from its sealed container through to the feeding tube. This design protects the sterile nutrition from exposure to external air and lowers the risk of contamination during feeding, which can be as long as 48 hours.
As we blogged a year ago, those products are great for the patient and the nursing staff in an ICU with a serious illness like COVID or bed ridden in a nursing home. But if you're at home, relatively mobile and following a tube feeding schedule of 3 meals a day with snacking in-between, such a design doesn't work for you. We proposed last November that the bFed® System gives you a way to lower the risk of contamination both during prep and delivery as well as the ease of use of the hospital based closed system products.
With the introduction of the Bolink® D Cap, there's an additional bFed System way to create a closed system when using packaged commercial tube feeding nutrition at home.
Just like the closed system designed for pump use, the Bolink D Cap creates a fluid path for the sterile commercial formula to travel from its Tetra container to the feeding tube. This helps to reduce the risk of contamination in two ways:
But with some important differences designed for at home use:
It's easy to use. Just remove the DreamCap from the tetra container, screw on the Bolink D Cap, prime the tubing, use the ENFit connect to connect to your feeding tube and it's mealtime. The vent in the cap allows air into the container to maintain a steady flow of nutrition and the roller clamp lets you control how fast or slow the nutrition flows. Before use with thicker and higher calorie nutrition, shake the Tetra. And, it may be necessary to shake or squeeze the Tetra occasionally during use to keep a steady flow. The vent also filters air during the feeding which helps to reduce exposure to potential contamination.
The video below shows how the system works.
As with all bFed System products, the Bolink D Cap makes meal time stress and mess free so you can relax!
Try it out with a 5 pack from the U Deliver Medical store.
It is reimbursed as part of HCPCS Code B4036, so it is covered by insurance if provided by your DME. Ask your healthcare provider to prescribe the Bolink D Cap as part of the monthly gravity tube feeding supplies you recieve from your DME.
