EVALUATION OF ANTICOAGULANT CONTROL IN A PHARMACIST OPERATED ANTICOAGULANT CLINIC

Aims-To compare the quality of outpatient anticoagulant control before and after the transfer of dosing responsibility to designated trained pharmacists from rotating junior medical staff. Methods-All Internati onal Normalised Ratio (INR) values for an eight month period either si de of the staff changeover were assessed for precision of therapeutic control according to described standards. Allowing for patient associa ted effects, observed and expected frequencies of ''successful'' contr ol for the two staff groups were compared under the hypothesis of no a ssociation. Results-INR results (n=2219) for 382 patients were analyse d. For patients in stable therapeutic control, there was no significan t difference in performance between the two staff groups. Patients wit h an INR result ''out'' of control limits were more likely to be retur ned ''in'' to control at their next visit by the pharmacists than by t he doctors. Conclusions-The quality of anticoagulant control in outpat ient clinics benefits from dedicated trained staff using standard prot ocols.