Hyperkalaemia Warnings (HP067)

Overview/Purpose

This Hyperkalaemia Warnings tools is a protocol alert EMIS Web, which has been designed to alert users where hyperkalaemia has been present either recently or in the past.

The alert is designed to show users that:

The patient has had hyperkalaemia
Whether this is a recent problem or a historic issue
If the patient is on drugs that may contribute to this
If the patient has associated acute kidney injury
If the patient has recently been acutely unwell

What does it do?

An alert will show on any patients within the following cohorts:

Mild Hyperkalaemia:

Patients with a potassium result 5.0 - 5.9 are shown mild hyperkalaemia information, with more detailed information about those with acute illness or on renin angiotensin system drugs

Moderate Hyperkalaemia:

Patients with a potassium result of 6.0 - 6.4 are shown moderate hyperkalaemia information, with more detailed information about AKI, those with acute illness or on renin angiotensin system drugs

Severe Hyperkalaemia:

Patients with a potassium result of 6.5 or higher are shown severe hyperkalaemia information,

Why is it important?

Severe index hyperkalaemia events are associated with adverse outcomes, including arrhythmia and mortality. Despite this, retesting following an index event has been shown to be uncommon, and incidence of recurrence is much higher than that of the index event. Horne et al. There has been an associated CAS alert