Anticoagulation management within a hospital setting: identifying risk factors affecting patient safety (14 March 2021)

Summary

Anticoagulants are used hospital wide throughout the patient trajectory involving many healthcare providers. Given their widespread use and risk profile, they are classified as high risk. Despite the many precautions and vast experience with these drugs, errors often occur in daily practice.

The aim of this study was to investigate which factors currently negatively affect patient safety in Az Sint-Lucas hospital in Belgium. The authors performed a retrospective data analysis based on incident reports and registered usage (2018–2019) as well as on pharmaceutical recommendations (3 months period in 2019) related to anticoagulants and antiaggregants. The data were obtained from the hospital information systems. 

A number of risk factors were identified, such as education of all healthcare professionals, communication, the IT systems used, the opening of temporary wards and transfer of patients within the hospital. It is our opinion that a multidisciplinary, centralised approach with a focus on monitoring is imperative. The use of a clinical pharmacist could play an important role.

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