Pharmacists could play role in increasing rates of VTE prophylaxis
Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis is consistently underemployed and ward pharmacists could be used to increase its use, an article published this week suggests (Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 2005;98:507).
Over 24 months, researchers carried out a prospective survey of 1,128
medical inpatients admitted to two English teaching hospitals. Only 30
per cent of patients at moderate and high risk of developing deep vein
thrombosis received any form of prophylaxis, and only 5.6 per cent received
prophylaxis according to the thromboembolic risk factor (THRIFT) recommendations.
These results were presented in the two hospitals. Six months later a
further assessment of VTE prophylaxis found that 29.6 per cent of patients
received prophylaxis in line with THRIFT recommendations. This improvement
was achieved by converting incorrect prophylaxis to correct prophylaxis — overall
prophylaxis rates did not show any improvement. However, ward pharmacists
could, the authors argue, be used to increase these rates.
“We suggest the empowerment of dedicated antithrombotic teams charged
with the task of periodically raising awareness and auditing prophylaxis
rates would ensure the continuity required to achieve acceptably high
rates of prophylaxis,” the authors say. “Ward pharmacists
may prove instrumental in bridging this gap in the short term,” they
add. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader