OBJECTIVES: This survey investigated the implementation of hospital guidelines for VTE prevention and protocols for VTE management/risk assessment and thromboprophylaxis in hospitalized non-surgical, acutely-ill medical patients as recommended by the American College of Chest Physicians.  METHODS: As part of a study of VTE in medically ill patients, identified from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database, involving a random sample of 504 patients with medical charts, a telephone survey of the 275 facilities in which these patients were hospitalized was conducted between June and September, 2011. An attempt was made to contact Quality Management/Improvement (QM) coordinators at targeted institutions. The survey consisted of a brief questionnaire (14 closed and 3 open-ended questions) regarding the presence of hospital guidelines and risk assessment protocols. Results were summarized descriptively.  RESULTS: We reached out to hospital operators at all 275 facilities. Many of contacted persons, however, had difficulty in identifying the QM department. Even when the correct department was reached, approximately 90% of calls were routed directly to voicemail and repeated calls (up to 3 calls at different times/days of week) were not returned. We were able to directly speak with 30 (11%) QM coordinators, of whom, only 8 (27%) completed the survey; 7 by telephone and 1 by email. Of the 8 (3%) hospitals that provided responses, 76% had VTE-specific clinical guidance in place. Our low survey yield of 2.9% (8/275) is comparable with the response rate of 1.45% (21/1448) responding to pertinent supplementary questions on VTE prevention in non-surgical patients that were included in the survey conducted by the Joint Commission on Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) in 2009.  CONCLUSIONS: QM departments in these hospitals are often unknown to hospital operators and QM coordinators are generally hard to reach. Opportunities for improvement in the implementation of VTE prophylaxis guidelines for hospitalized medically-ill patients exist.