Review Outpatient management of oral vitamin K antagonist therapy: defining and measuring high-quality management Expert Rev. Cardiovasc. Ther. 6(1), 57–70 (2008) Katherine W Phillips Oral anticoagulation therapy with warfarin is the mainstay of prevention and treatment of and Jack Ansell† thromboembolic disease. However, it remains one of the leading causes of harmful medication errors and medication-related adverse events. The beneficial outcomes of oral †Author for correspondence Boston University School of anticoagulation therapy are directly dependent upon the quality of dose and anticoagulation Medicine, Department of management, but the literature is not robust with regards to what constitutes such Medicine, Boston, management. This review focuses on, and attempts to define, the parameters of MA 02118, USA high-quality anticoagulation management and identifies the appropriate outcome measures Tel.: +1 617 638 7250 constituting high-quality management. Elements discussed include the most fundamental Fax: +1 616 638 8728 measure, time in therapeutic range, along with other parameters including therapy
[email protected] initiation, time to therapeutic range, dosing management when patients are not in therapeutic range, perioperative dosing management, patient education, and other important outcome measures. Healthcare providers who manage oral anticoagulation therapy should utilize these parameters as a measure of their performance in an effort to achieve high-quality anticoagulation management. KEYWORDS: anticoagulation • quality • vitamin K antagonist • warfarin Oral anticoagulation therapy with the vitamin K of these agents. One such agency, the Joint antagonists (VKA), particularly warfarin, Commission, has proposed new 2008 National which is the most commonly used VKA, con- Patient Safety Goals aimed at minimizing the tinues to increase worldwide due to the aging risks associated with warfarin use and reducing population and its efficacy in preventing stroke adverse events [102].