Electronic alerts for hospitalized high-VTE risk patients not receiving prophylaxis: a cohort study

Background Despite existing consensus guidelines, venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis is underused in high-risk hospitalized patients. The present study evaluated the effects of an electronic alert to the responsible physician in a cohort of hospitalized high-risk patients not receiving VTE prophylaxis. Methods The absence of VTE prophylaxis orders in hospitalized patients at high-risk for VTE triggered an electronic alert to the responsible physician. We studied a cohort of 866 patients whose physicians were alerted that their patients were at high-risk but receiving no VTE prophylaxis. The electronic alert recommended that the responsible physician order preventive measures. We followed each patient for 90 days to determine whether imaging-confirmed symptomatic VTE occurred. Results 9,527 patients were identified as high-risk for VTE. 9% (866) were not receiving prophylaxis, compared with 18% in the intervention arm of a previous randomized trial ( P