A Tool to Assess Compliance in Anticoagulation Management

Excerpt

Compliance with any medication can be quite variable and difficult to assess. Assessment becomes particularly important in the case of a medication, such as warfarin, that has multiple interactions and requires frequent laboratory monitoring. Good compliance with medication dosage and blood test monitoring are necessary to safely manage warfarin patients. The Community Anticoagulation Therapy (CAT) Clinic, established in 2005 through a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Partnerships in Implementing Patient Safety (PIPS), measures compliance with warfarin therapy. The Clinic developed a tool called the “Warfarin Compliance Assessment Scale,” which assigns points to categories. The assessment scale provides the CAT Clinic with an objective way to measure an individual patient’s compliance in using warfarin. It is important to note that the scores of patients enrolled to date indicate an increase in their compliance over time. This paper describes the function and benefit of the compliance tool in the management of anticoagulation therapy.