Whittington introduces VTE risk assessment

Published: 20-Jul-2011


The Whittington Hospital in London has incorporated an electronic venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk assessment system into its Integrated Clinical Environment (ICE) Requesting software from Sunquest. Speaking about the deployment, Dr Farrukh Shah, consultant haematologist, said: "At the time the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payment framework was established we had a paper-based VTE risk assessment system, which was not working particularly well. In May 2010 proper documented risk assessments were only being performed on about 30% of patients, so we decided to replace the paper-based system with an electronic VTE risk assessment on ICE." Staff had already been using ICE to order tests and check results when admitting patients, and now they are prompted to fill out a VTE risk assessment too. Dr Shah said: "It took just two weeks for us to go live with the system, and we are now one of just a few trusts in the country who have achieved the 90% CQUIN target, which has huge financial benefits."

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