Dedicated warfarin care programme results in superior warfarin control in Queensland, Australia

Warfarin is used to prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Ongoing monitoring of International normalised ratio (INR) and time in therapeutic range (TTR) commonly used to assess the quality of warfarin management are required. Anticoagulant clinics have demonstrated improved TTRs, particularly in countries with poorer control in primary care settings. Reported TTR in Australia has been relatively high; so, it is unknown if benefit would be seen from dedicated warfarin clinics in Australia. The aim of this study was to compare the level of warfarin control in patients managed by their general practitioner (GP) and a warfarin care programme (WCP) by Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology.

Retrospective data were collected for AF patients enrolled in the warfarin care programme at WCP, and included patients with INR tests available while managed by their GP. INR tests were used to calculate TTR and frequency of testing for the time managed by GP and WCP, with mean data used for analysis and comparison.

The eligible 200 warfarin patients had a TTR of 69% with GP management and 82% with WCP management (<.0001). Significant differences were also found between GP and WCP management in the percentage of tests in range, total number of tests and frequency of testing. WCP had a reduced time to repeat test at extremes of INR results.

Australian warfarin control was good when managed by either GP or WCP, but WCP management increased TTR by 13%. Dedicated warfarin programmes can improve warfarin control and optimise therapy for patients.