Coming from the “why didn’t I think of that” department, UK hospitals are about to embark on systematic screening of all hospitalized patients. Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health (England), said
“The dangers of venous thromboembolism in hospitalised patients have long been recognised, but our challenge was to find a systematic approach to identify patients most at risk.
“Creating a standardised national preventive strategy on this scale is a world first. We anticipate that, by hospitals implementing risk assessment for all patients admitted to hospital, we can make the goal of reducing death from venous thromboembolism more attainable. This simple step has the potential to save thousands of lives each year.”
The risk assessment will be available for use by all hospitals and has the potential to prevent many avoidable deaths. It was developed with key stakeholders, including the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE’s supporting guidelines for all hospitalized patients are scheduled to be published in autumn 2009.
Press release: Hospital patients to be assessed for risk of blood clots…
UK Dept of Health: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk assessment…