Quality improvement project to enhance heparin safety in patients with haemodialysis in China

[摘要] Maintaining safety in a haemodialysis (HD)unit is paramount.1 Low-molecular-weightheparin (LMWH) is commonly used as ananticoagulant to prevent clot forming in theextracorporeal circuits (ECCs).2 3 Incorrectdosages of anticoagulant may bring risks topatients with HD. Presently, most HD unitsdetermine their own dosages of LMWHaccording to their own experience, andguided by clinical efficacy.4 Monitoring oflow-range activated clotting time (ACT-LR)and anti-Xa activity is rarely undertaken oravailable. Chinese national standard operational procedure (SOP) for HD has suggestedno specific LMWH regimen, leaving it tothe discretion of individual HD units.5 MostChinese dialysis units appear to have an arrayof heparin regimens of their own.

[学科分类] 药学

[关键词] Medication safety;Incident reporting;Patient safety;Quality improvement;Root cause analysis