Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Risk Assessment Collection

Submit data through the Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS).

Frequency: Quarterly

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), commonly known as blood clots, is a significant international patient safety issue. The first step in preventing death and disability from VTE is to identify those at risk so that preventative treatments (prophylaxis) can be given. This data collection quantifies the numbers of hospital admissions (aged 16 and over at the time of admission) who are being risk assessed for VTE within 14 hours of admission, to identify those who should be given appropriate prophylaxis based on guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). These measures have the potential to save many lives each year.

This data collection is intended to embed VTE risk assessment across the NHS and is critical in evaluating the impact of the National VTE Prevention Programme on improving health outcomes for patients. The VTE risk assessment is a former national CQUIN indicator and is a National Quality Requirement in the NHS Standard Contract. It sets an operational standard of 95% of admitted patients aged 16 and over being risk assessed for VTE on admission each month. Prior to April 2019, the operational standard related to adult admitted patients aged 18 and over.

This data collection asks for the following information:

1. Number of admitted patients (aged 16 and over at the time of admission) in the month who have been risk assessed for VTE within 14 hours of admission to hospital, using the criteria in the NICE guidance.
2. Total number of admitted patients (aged 16 and over at the time of admission) in the month.

The percentage of admitted patients (aged 16 and over at the time of admission) in the month who have been risk assessed for VTE on admission is automatically calculated from items (1) and (2).

All providers of NHS-funded acute care (that is, NHS trusts and foundation trusts and independent sector providers of acute NHS services) must complete this data collection. Providers of non-acute health services are not asked to complete this data collection, although they should be aware that all patients should be protected from unnecessary risk of VTE.

For the purposes of this collection, risk assessment should be completed on admitted patients within 14 hours of admission; NICE guidelines state that where required, pharmacological thromboprophylaxis should be started within 14 hours of admission, therefore risk assessment should be completed prior to this, unless otherwise stated in the population-specific recommendations.  

This data collection is a census of all patients. It is not appropriate to use sampling methodologies to produce estimates.

The collection will open on the first working day of the month following the end of the quarter data is being submitted for.

Submission deadline is the last working day of the same month.

Registered data submitters of the data collection will receive monthly emails from Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS) confirming when the reporting window is opening and closing.

There are 2 scheduled revisions each year. These are opportunities for submitters to submit data for missed collections or submit revised data for collections previously submitted to. 

The first scheduled revision collection for Q1 and Q2 will open on the 3rd Monday of December and close on the 4th Friday of December. The second scheduled revision collection for Q3 and Q4 will open on the 3rd Monday of June and close on the 4th Friday of June.