About DVT Awareness Month

Knowing your risk is a year-round goal

DVT Awareness Public Service Announcement

This powerful, personal account of one family’s struggle with complications from deep vein thrombosis (DVT) can be used to help raise awareness in your hospital.

Each year, approximately 2 million Americans suffer from DVT.² Pulmonary embolism (PE)—a DVT complication—is the leading cause of preventable hospital death,¹⁶ with 300,000 fatalities annually.³

In response to the need for greater awareness of DVT/PE and action for effective prophylaxis, the Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis set out in 2003 to establish March as DVT Awareness Month.

This year, the Coalition is working to raise DVT awareness by improving patient safety through risk assessment, a leading strategy to reduce DVT complications. Leading organizations and authorities have taken steps to reduce DVT by issuing patient safety mandates and other measures for hospitals.

This website contains information about these measures for patient safety and risk assessment in support of DVT Awareness Month 2010.