We estimated the efficacy of prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in a multidisciplinary surgical hospital. The study was carried out in the framework of the project "Venous thromboembolism safety zone". It involved the patients of the following 7 hospital's divisions: gynecological, coloproctological, two traumatic-orthopedic, and 3 surgical (general, vascular and purulent thoracic surgery) departments. A total of 3,406 patients (6.35% of those enlisted in the project all over the country) were available for the observation. The group of patients at the age under 40 years comprised 22% of their total number, those aged between 40 and 60 years accounted for 52% while the patients above 60 years for 26%. 27% of the surgical interventions were performed under total anesthesia, 72% and 1% under regional and local anesthesia respectively. In 18% of the 3,406 interventions lasted less than 45 minutes while the remaining 82% took more time. The additional risk factors of VTE were revealed in 54% of the patients. 0.59% of the patients developed venous thromboembolism during the stay at the hospital. Deep vein thrombosis was diagnosed in 14 (0.41%) patients and pulmonary embolism in 6 (0.17%) ones. The latter condition resulted in the death of 4 patients. The analysis of the results of the study has demonstrated that the risk of VTE was erroneously estimated by the attending physicians in 25% of the patients (it was underestimated in 11% and overestimated in 14% of the cases). These data give reason to recommend that the case records of individual patients should include a special subsection containing (along with the medical and life histories) the description of the algorithm used to assess VTE risk factors. The implementation of this recommendation is expected to improve the accuracy of identification of VTE risk groups in the routine clinical practice.