Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 9, 2026

Author Spotlight: Developing a Point-of-Care Hemoglobin Estimation Method for Anemia Management
Published on: January 19, 2024
Improving hospital venous thromboembolism prophylaxis with electronic decision support
Rohit Bhalla1, Matthew A Berger, Stan H Reissman
1Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA. rbhalla@stamhealth.org
Background:
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) disease prophylaxis rates among medical inpatients have been noted to be <50%.
Objective:
Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a computerized decision support application to improve VTE prophylaxis.
Design:
Observational cohort study.
Setting:
Academic medical center.
Patients:
Adult inpatients on hospital medicine and nonmedicine services.
Intervention:
A decision support application designed by a quality improvement team was implemented on medicine services in September 2009.
Measurements:
Effectiveness and safety parameters were compared on medicine services and nonmedicine (nonimplementation) services for 6-month periods before and after implementation. Effectiveness was evaluated by retrospective information system queries for rates of any VTE prophylaxis, pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis, and hospital-acquired VTE incidence. Safety was evaluated by queries for bleeding and thrombocytopenia rates.
Results:
Medicine service overall VTE prophylaxis increased from 61.9% to 82.1% (P < 0.001), and pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis increased from 59.0% to 74.5% (P < 0.001). Smaller but significant increases were observed on nonmedicine services. Hospital-acquired VTE incidence on medicine services decreased significantly from 0.65% to 0.42% (P = 0.008) and nonsignificantly on nonmedicine services. Bleeding rates increased from 2.9% to 4.0% (P < 0.001) on medicine services and from 7.7% to 8.6% (P = 0.043) on nonmedicine services, with nonsignificant changes in thrombocytopenia rates observed on both services.
Conclusions:
An electronic decision support application on inpatient medicine services can significantly improve VTE prophylaxis and hospital-acquired VTE rates with a reasonable safety profile.
Related Concept Videos
Venous Thrombosis I: Introduction
Hospitals-II
Nurses that work in...
Hospitals-I
Self-Help Support Groups
Accessibility and Cost-Effectiveness
One of the primary strengths of self-help...
Decision Making
Automatic decision-making is fast, intuitive, and relies on gut feelings...
Venous Return
What is Venous Return?
Venous return refers to the rate at which blood flows back to the heart from the body's peripheral veins. It's an integral part of the circulatory system...

