Comprehensive Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Prophylaxis

Background

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a serious condition that can lead to hospital-related death. The current, publicly reported VTE outcome measure (PSI-12) has significant flaws due to surveillance bias, and the VTE process measure (SCIP-VTE-2) only measures the provision of prophylaxis in the 24 hours before and after surgery.

About the Project

ISQIC has developed and implemented a composite process measure of postoperative VTE prophylaxis that improves on the limitations of prior measures and is particularly useful to hospitals in identifying specific targets for improvement. The three components of the composite VTE prophylaxis process measure are the three widely accepted components of optimal postoperative VTE prophylaxis: 1) early ambulation, 2) sequential compression devices, and 3) chemoprophylaxis. The composite VTE prophylaxis process measure can help hospitals identify their local, specific failures in VTE prophylaxis (e.g., ordering, administration, patient refusal, etc.), and also reliably benchmark and compare performance between hospitals. Importantly, the measure can be adapted to focus on one component such as chemoprophylaxis, ensuring correct dose, timing, and delivery of all doses throughout the hospital stay. A patient only passes the composite measure if all three component measures are passed.