Pictured: Associate Medical Director (A&R) and VTE Lead, Ms Uma Krishnamoorthy
Latest statistics released by NHS Improvement reveal that staff at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) are consistently achieving the national standard for patients who receive a venous thromboembolism risk assessment on admission to hospital.
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a condition in which a blood clot forms most often in the deep veins of the leg, groin or arm (known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and travels in the circulation, lodging in the lungs (known as pulmonary embolism).
In the 12 months between April 2018 and March 2019, records show that the number of VTE risk assessments carried out by staff at East Lancashire Hospitals was consistently above 99 per cent throughout the entire year.
“Having a risk assessment following admission is the first fundamental step in our VTE prevention strategy and in recent years staff have embedded this as part of our patient safety culture,” says ELHT Acting Chief Executive Professor Damian Riley.
“Thank you to everyone involved for their dedication and support and for leading, encouraging, challenging and motivating staff and teams to collectively lead on this harms reduction initiative which benefits our patients”.
Measured against 152 NHS Trusts across the country, East Lancashire Hospitals was number six in England between October and December 2018 (quarter 3), 8th in quarters one and four, and 9th nationally during quarter two.
“Being in a hospital bed and not moving as much as usual can raise the risk. Therefore, it’s important that we screen all patients coming in to hospital to quickly assess their VTE risk, and commence them on appropriate preventive strategy,” says Ms Uma Krishnamoorthy, Associate Medical Director (A&R) and VTE Lead at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.
“Special thanks go to every medical and nursing professional, as well as our multi-disciplinary colleagues, ward-based pharmacy teams and informatics staff who made this achievement possible.”
“Now we have an even bigger challenge - to keep up the high standards and ensure that a similar excellent performance is achieved in repeat VTE risk assessments during the first 24 hours following admission.”