MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Less than 10 percent of retrievable inferior vena cava filters were removed from patients released from Boston Medical Center even though filter placement was no longer required at discharge.
Of the 679 patients who had received a retrievable IVC filter at Boston Medical Center since 2006 only 9 percent had the IVC filter successfully removed.
“The retrievable filters can be left in permanently, although I would say that the majority of these patients only had a temporary reason why they couldn’t be anticoagulated, and yet the filter remained in place after they were sent home,” Boston Medical Center’s Shayna Sarosiek told TheHeart.org. “Roughly 25 percent of all of these patients were fully anticoagulated before they left the hospital, which means the filter should have come out.”
Sign up to get our free newsletters delivered straight to your inbox
One patient had and IVC filter removed after it had been in place for five years, according to the news site.
Roughly half of the filters at Boston Medical Center were implanted for anticoagulation therapy after trauma, blunt trauma, car accidents and falls. Sarosiek said that lack of follow-up was the main reason these retrievable filters aren’t removed from patients.
"The filters are placed by five different services within the hospital, but there’s not one assigned group of providers that follow up with these patients," Sarosiek told the news site. "They’re just kind of lost in the wind. A lot of the filters are placed by the trauma surgeons initially when the patient comes for trauma, and then the patients are followed by primary care or some other service, so they’re not followed up properly."
Hospitals slam Medicare tax bill cuts
Hospital groups are pushing back against the billions of dollars worth of Medicare cuts proposed in the House Republicans’ payroll tax bill, according to TheHill.com.
InVivo’s Reynolds to appear on Baltimore news show
InVivo Therapeutics’ CEO Frank Reynolds will appear on a Baltimore Sunday morning news show to discus the company’s latest advances in spinal cord injury treatment, according to a press release. Reynolds will appear on Dec. 18 during the 8a.m. newscast.
Corpak relocates headquarters
Corpak MedSystems relocated its corporate headquarters to a new 74,000 square food facility in Buffalo Grove, Ill, according to a press release.