Use of provider-level dashboards and pay-for-performance in venous thromboembolism prophylaxis.

BACKGROUND: Despite safe and cost-effective venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention measures, VTE prophylaxis rates are often suboptimal. Healthcare reform efforts emphasize transparency through programs to report performance and payment incentives through pay-for-performance programs. OBJECTIVE: To sequentially examine an individualized physician dashboard and pay-for-performance program to improve VTE prophylaxis rates among hospitalists. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of 3144 inpatient admissions. After a baseline observation period, VTE prophylaxis compliance was compared during both interventions. SETTING: A 1060-bed tertiary care medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-eight part-time and full-time academic hospitalists. INTERVENTIONS: A Web-based hospitalist dashboard provided VTE prophylaxis feedback. After 6 months of feedback only, a pay-for-performance program was incorporated, with graduated payouts for compliance rates of 80% to 100%. MEASUREMENTS: Prescription of American College of Chest Physicians' guideline-compliant VTE prophylaxis and subsequent pay-for-performance payments. RESULTS: Monthly VTE prophylaxis compliance rates were 86% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 85-88), 90% (95% CI: 88-93), and 94% (95% CI: 93-96) during the baseline, dashboard, and combined dashboard/pay-for-performance periods, respectively. Compliance significantly improved with the use of the dashboard (P = 0.01) and addition of the pay-for-performance program (P = 0.01). The highest rate of improvement occurred with the dashboard (1.58%/month; P = 0.01). Annual individual physician performance payments ranged from $53 to $1244 (mean $633; standard deviation ±$350). CONCLUSIONS: Direct feedback using dashboards was associated with significantly improved compliance, with further improvement after incorporating an individual physician pay-for-performance program. Real-time dashboards and physician-level incentives may assist hospitals in achieving higher safety and quality benchmarks.

Lessons from the Johns Hopkins Multi-Disciplinary Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Prevention Collaborative.

PROBLEM: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common cause of potentially preventable mortality, morbidity, and increased medical costs. Risk-appropriate prophylaxis can prevent most VTE events, but only a small fraction of patients at risk receive this treatment. DESIGN: Prospective quality improvement programme. SETTING: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE: A multidisciplinary team established a VTE Prevention Collaborative in 2005. The collaborative applied the four step TRIP (translating research into practice) model to develop and implement a mandatory clinical decision support tool for VTE risk stratification and risk-appropriate VTE prophylaxis for all hospitalised adult patients. Initially, paper based VTE order sets were implemented, which were then converted into 16 specialty-specific, mandatory, computerised, clinical decision support modules. KEY MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT: VTE risk stratification within 24 hours of hospital admission and provision of risk-appropriate, evidence based VTE prophylaxis. EFFECTS OF CHANGE: The VTE team was able to increase VTE risk assessment and ordering of risk-appropriate prophylaxis with paper based order sets to a limited extent, but achieved higher compliance with a computerised clinical decision support tool and the data feedback which it enabled. Risk-appropriate VTE prophylaxis increased from 26% to 80% for surgical patients and from 25% to 92% for medical patients in 2011. LESSONS LEARNT: A computerised clinical decision support tool can increase VTE risk stratification and risk-appropriate VTE prophylaxis among hospitalised adult patients admitted to a large urban academic medical centre. It is important to ensure the tool is part of the clinician's normal workflow, is mandatory (computerised forcing function), and offers the requisite modules needed for every clinical specialty.

Improved prophylaxis and decreased rates of preventable harm with the use of a mandatory computerized clinical decision support tool for prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism in trauma.

OBJECTIVE: Venous thromboembolism is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality and is largely preventable. Despite this fact, appropriate prophylaxis is vastly underutilized. To improve compliance with best practice prophylaxis for VTE in hospitalized trauma patients, we implemented a mandatory computerized provider order entry-based clinical decision support tool. The system required completion of checklists of VTE risk factors and contraindications to pharmacologic prophylaxis. With this tool, we were able to determine a patient's risk stratification level and recommend appropriate prophylaxis. To evaluate the effect of our mandatory computerized provider order entry-based clinical decision support tool on compliance with prophylaxis guidelines for venous thromboembolism (VTE) and VTE outcomes among admitted adult trauma patients. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study (from January 2007 through December 2010). SETTING: University-based, state-designated level 1 adult trauma center. PATIENTS: A total of 1599 hospitalized adult trauma patients with a hospital length of stay greater than 1 day. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measure was the proportion of patients who were ordered risk-appropriate guideline-suggested VTE prophylaxis. The secondary outcome measure was the proportion of patients with any preventable VTE (defined as VTE in a patient not ordered guideline-appropriate VTE prophylaxis), pulmonary embolism, and/or deep vein thrombosis. RESULTS: Compliance with guideline-appropriate prophylaxis increased from 66.2% to 84.4% (P < .001). The rate of preventable harm from VTE decreased from 1.0% to 0.17% (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a mandatory computerized provider order entry-based clinical decision support tool significantly improved compliance with VTE prophylaxis guidelines in hospitalized adult trauma patients. This improved compliance was associated with a significant decrease in the rate of preventable harm, which was defined as VTE events in patients not ordered appropriate prophylaxis.