University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) has been named an Exemplar Centre for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in recognition of its excellent work in the field of blood clot prevention.

The Trust underwent an inspection for its management of VTE on 12 July and a subsequent report found “the commitment to VTE prevention as well as the quality of VTE services was highly impressive”.

The audit was carried out by the NHS VTE Exemplar Centre Network whose inspectors met with Consultant Haematologist Dr Will Lester and his team.

Dr Dave Rosser, Trust Medical Director, said: “This award is a well-deserved credit to Dr Lester and his colleagues but it also sends a reassuring message to our patients who can be confident they will receive the best risk assessment and treatments whilst in our care.

“Many trusts have to rely on paper-based assessment for the risk of VTE but we have been using an electronic risk assessment tool within our in-house developed Prescribing Information and Communication System (PICS) since June 2008, for all admitted patients.

“As a result, we have achieved a VTE risk assessment completion rate of at least 98% since September 2010, against the national average of 91%.”

Work to improve VTE risk assessment even further will continue with an ongoing programme of education for junior doctors, a revised e-learning tool for nursing staff and the introduction of a new type of compression stocking.