Pharmacists manage anticoagulant therapy at FQHC in Florida

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“After analyzing her current therapy and indication for treatment, we realized that she was no longer a candidate for anticoagulation,” said Matt Timmers, PharmD, who manages anticoagulant therapy with his colleague, Ashton T. Cobb, PharmD. Both are postgraduate year 1 community pharmacy residents at Azalea Health. Renee had had a blood clot more than a year before, for which a medical provider prescribed 6 months of anticoagulant therapy. “We asked her if there was any reason that she knew of that she was still taking this, and she said she was just taking it because her primary care provider kept renewing the prescription,” Timmers recalled. Timmers and Cobb contacted Renee’s primary care provider (PCP ) to suggest that the therapy be discontinued. “This patient was coming in, getting her INR checked every few weeks, paying for the visits, [and] paying for medication that she might not even need. And she was constantly on antibiotics that were affecting her INR, so she was at increased bleed risk almost every week,” Timmers said. Renee went for a follow-up visit with her PCP, who then stopped the medication. This pharmacist-driven intervention cut costs, eliminated an unnecessary medication, and reduced the risk of bleeding for an already vulnerable patient, all without putting unnecessary burden on an overtaxed physician workforce.