NHS Improvement: Venous thromboembolism risk assessment (2019/20)

Summary

The venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk assessment data collection is used to inform a national quality requirement, which sets an operational standard of 95% of inpatients (aged 16 and over at the time of admission) undergoing risk assessments each month.

Content

Key results from the data collected:

• England continues to achieve the 95% NHS Standard Contract threshold. Of the 3.8 million admitted inpatients aged 16 and over for whom data was reported in this collection, 3.7 million (96%) were risk assessed for VTE on admission.
• From Q4 2015/16 to Q4 2016/17 the percentage of inpatients risk assessed for VTE was stable at 96%. The results for Q1 2017/18 showed a reduction of 1% with 95% of patients being risk assessed for VTE and this remained static until Q4 2017/18. In Q1 2018/19 the percentage of patients being risk assessed for VTE increased to 96% but decreased again in Q2 2018/19 to 95%. In Q3 2018/19 performance increased to 96% and remained at 96% in Q4 2018/19. From April 2019 the data collection changed to include inpatients aged 16 and over at the time of admission. In Q1 2019/20 the percentage of inpatients risk assessed was 96%.
• In Q1 2019/20, the percentage of admitted inpatients aged 16 and over at the time of admission risk assessed for VTE was 96% for NHS acute care providers and 98% for independent sector providers. NHS acute care providers carried out about 97% of all VTE risk assessments.
• Six regions (North East and Yorkshire, North West, Midlands, East of England, London and South East) achieved the 95% NHS Standard Contract operational standard in Q1 2019/20. The South West did not meet the operational standard and risk assessed 94.7% of inpatients.
• In Q1 2019/20, 80% of providers (240 of the 299 providers) carried out a VTE risk assessment for 95% or more of their admissions (the NHS Standard Contract operational standard). This breaks down as 72% of NHS acute providers (106 of 147) and 88% of independent sector providers (134 of 152).
• Of the 59 providers (20%) that did not achieve the 95% operational standard in Q1 2019/20, 76% (45 of 59) risk assessed between 90% and 95% of total admissions for VTE.