The Risk Management Quarterly, the peer-reviewed journal for The Association for Healthcare Risk Management of New York, Inc. (the NY chapter of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management), recently published in its Fall 2013 edition an article by Lynn Razzano, RN (clinical nurse consultant, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety) and Michael Wong, JD (executive director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety).
This article discusses the OB VTE Safety Recommendations recently released by the Alliance together with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the National Perinatal Association (for a copy of the press release, please click here).
Razzano and Wong explain the importance of the OB VTE Safety Recommendations:
Focus of VTE prevention was one of the key areas of focus-there was difficulty attaining this goal. In 2014, The Maternal Harm Prevention Initiative was dually developed by ACOG and Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine, both organizations clearly continuing to identify preventable harm events occurring in pregnant women. Patients undergoing general surgery overall are at high risk to develop DVT. It has been reported that the cost∗ associated with a thromboembolic event averages $10,804 for a DVT and $16,644 for a pulmonary embolism (PE). The CDC includes reduction in DVT as one of ten major factors for reducing adverse events.
For a pdf copy of the OB VTE Safety Recommendations, please click here. A “checkable” can be downloaded by clicking here.
To read the article in its entirety, please click RMQ-Fall 2013.