Outcomes of Patients Undergoing Elective Bowel Resection Before and After Implementation of an Anemia Screening and Treatment Program.

Background: Patients with anemia undergoing elective colorectal cancer surgery are known to have significantly higher rates of postoperative complications and worse outcomes.

Objective: This study aimed to improve rates of anemia screening and treatment in patients undergoing elective colon and rectal resections through a quality improvement initiative.

Design: We compared a historical cohort of patients before implementation of our anemia screening and treatment quality improvement program to a prospective cohort after implementation.

Improving the treatment of pre-operative anemia in hepato-pancreato-biliary patients: a quality improvement initiative.

Background: Pre-operative anemia is a common, but treatable, condition encountered by surgical patients. It has been associated with increased perioperative complications, length of stay, and blood transfusions. The aim of this project was to increase the treatment rate of pre-operative anemia to 75% of patients consented for major hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgery.

A randomized trial comparing 2 low-molecular-weight heparins for the outpatient treatment of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.

Background: Low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWHs) are now standard therapy for the treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). No published trials have compared LMWHs, and few studies have examined outpatient therapy for PE. Only tinzaparin sodium has demonstrated superiority to unfractionated heparin in a clinical trial.

The outpatient bleeding risk index: validation of a tool for predicting bleeding rates in patients treated for deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.

Background: Long-term anticoagulation prevents recurrent thrombosis in patients with idiopathic deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, but with a risk of clinically important so-called major bleeding. Physician- and patient-based decisions on the optimal duration of therapy are sensitive to the bleeding risk. The Outpatient Bleeding Risk Index potentially provides a means of calculating the potential risk of bleeding using easily elicited clinical findings, but, to our knowledge, the authors of the index have provided the only published validation of it.