Pharmacist-led anticoagulation monitoring can significantly improve the effectiveness and safety of warfarin for patients during hospitalization

Abstract

To investigate the role of pharmacist-led anticoagulation monitoring service for warfarin anticoagulation therapy in patients during hospitalization. We retrospectively analyzed the data of 421 patients receiving warfarin anticoagulation therapy during hospitalization between April, 2016 and December, 2017. Of these patients, 316 received daily pharmacist-led anticoagulation monitoring service including checking the patients' International Normalized Ratio (INR) and other pertinent laboratory test results and reviewing medication changes and the patients' clinical status (monitoring group); the other 105 patients receiving warfarin anticoagulation therapy without pharmaceutical care served as the control group. The data including compliance rate of anticoagulant indicators, incidence and rate of prompt management of INR alert, thrombosis and bleeding events during hospitalization were analyzed among these patients. Compared with the control patients, the patients in the monitoring group showed a significantly higher percentage time within target INR range [(73.20±9.46)% vs (46.32±17.11)%, P < 0.001] and a higher qualified rate of INR before discharge (98.42% vs 60.95%, P < 0.001) as well as a higher proper INR-monitoring frequency (97.15% vs 66.67%, P < 0.001). The patients in the monitoring group showed a significantly lower incidence of INR alert than the control patients (8.23% vs 20.00%, P < 0.001) with also a much higher rate of prompt management (96.15% vs 33.33%). The two groups had similar incidences of clinical events except that the control group reported a higher incidence of minor bleeding episodes (9.52% vs 2.53%, P=0.005). Pharmacist-led anticoagulation monitoring service can significantly improve the effectiveness and safety of warfarin anticoagulation therapy for patients during hospitalization.