Evaluation of a real-time educational program to improve administration and patient adherence with pharmacologic venous thromboembolism prophylaxis: impact of a quality improvement project
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Horvath, Lindsay M.. Evaluation of a real-time educational program to improve administration and patient adherence with pharmacologic venous thromboembolism prophylaxis: impact of a quality improvement project. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-0792-q351
TitleEvaluation of a real-time educational program to improve administration and patient adherence with pharmacologic venous thromboembolism prophylaxis: impact of a quality improvement project
DescriptionPurpose of Project: Non-administration of pharmacologic venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis remains an issue in hospitalized patients and is linked to increased VTE events. Decreasing VTE rates is one of the top safety and quality care measures among health care facilities. An academic medical center discovered ~50% of non-administered pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis doses were associated with patient refusal. Patient-centered education is shown to be effective in addressing this issue. This DNP project assessed the impact of a real-time educational quality improvement (QI) pilot program on administration and patient adherence with prescribed pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis.
Methods: This program evaluation tracked patient refusal rates, outcomes of the educational intervention in patients that refused anticoagulation, and VTE events in the intervention unit and a comparison unit without the intervention.
Results: A total of 14 patients received real-time education following refusal of anticoagulation, and 10 out of the 14 (71%) patients agreed to take anticoagulation after education. There were no statistically significant results in decreasing non-administered and refused doses of anticoagulation, and VTE events in the intervention unit when compared to non-intervention unit.
Implications for Practice: This DNP project lends support to importance of patient education, demonstrates ways to engage and empower patients to make informed health decisions, improves patient outcomes, and has the potential to improve reimbursement for this academic medical center. Advanced practice providers, such as nurse practitioners, are in a unique position to implement interventions to reduce VTE rates in hospitalized patients. Interventions to improve administration of pharmacological VTE prophylaxis in hospitalized patients should be further explored.