The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Quality Forum (NQF) are working on national consensus standards for prevention and care of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the inpatient setting.  In early 2007, 10 of 19 Candidate Performance Measures addressing key aspects of VTE will be pilot tested:

Risk Assessment/Prophylaxis

• Documentation of venous thromboembolism risk assessment/prophylaxis within 24 hours of hospital admission
• Documentation of venous thromboembolism risk assessment/prophylaxis within 24 hours of transfer to an intensive care unit

Treatment

• Documentation of inferior vena cava filter indication
• Venous thromboembolism patients with overlap of parenteral and warfarin anticoagulation therapy
• Venous thromboembolism patients receiving unfractionated heparin with platelet count monitoring
• Venous thromboembolism patients with renal insufficiency that received reduced/discontinued anticoagulation therapy
• Venous thromboembolism patients receiving unfractionated heparin management by nomogram/protocol
• Venous thromboembolism discharge instructions

Outcome

• Venous thromboembolism patients with international normalized ratio >6 after initiation of warfarin therapy
• Incidence of potentially preventable hospital-acquired venous thromboembolism

Additional information is available from JCAHO and NQF.