Abstract
Patient education of high-risk medications such as direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) is limited in ambulatory care settings. Clinical pharmacists are uniquely equipped to educate patients about DOACS but seldom interact with patients in those settings where patient education and satisfaction are often overlooked. Recently, the Anticoagulation Forum endorsed a checklist (DOAC Checklist) to guide and educate patients initiating or resuming DOACs. We assessed the impact on knowledge and satisfaction of an intervention framed around the checklist. Randomized clinical trial. Ambulatory patients starting a DOAC or resuming one after setback (bleeding, stroke, or transient ischemic attack) in an ambulatory setting (office, emergency department, or short stay hospitalization). Three educational clinical pharmacist tele-visits, hotline access to the pharmacist, and coordination with continuity providers in 3 months. Patient knowledge scores from a 15-item DOAC-related questionnaire and satisfaction scores from an abbreviated version of the Duke Anticoagulation Satisfaction Survey (DASS). Of 561 randomized patients, 436 completed our follow-up surveys. Knowledge scores were similar for the 233 intervention patients vs. 203 control patients (63.7% vs 62.2% correct). Satisfaction scores on the 7-point Likert scale were virtually identical (6.24 and 6.22). Our pharmacist-led intervention framed around the DOAC checklist had little impact on knowledge and satisfaction. Delays between intervention end and completion of the follow-up questionnaires may have obscured benefits experienced earlier. More intensive education or strategies other than telephone-based consultation may be required to produce sustained knowledge.
TRN: NCT04068727 retrospectively registered on August 22, 2019.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Not applicable.
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Offices of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 2021 National Action Plan for ADE Prevention https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/ADE-Action-Plan-Anticoagulants.pdf. Accessed 19 May 2017
Whitworth MM, Haase KK, Fike DS, Bharadwaj RM, Young RB, MacLaughlin EJ (2017) Utilization and prescribing patterns of direct oral anticoagulants. Int J Gen Med 10:87–94. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijgm.S129235
Fairbanks RJ, Hildebrand JM, Kolstee KE, Schneider SM, Shah MN (2007) Medical and nursing staff highly value clinical pharmacists in the emergency department. Emerg Med J 24(10):716–718
Awwad O, Akour A, Al-Muhaissen S, Morisky D (2015) The influence of patients’ knowledge on adherence to their chronic medications: a cross-sectional study in Jordan. Int J Clin Pharm 37(3):504–510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-015-0086-3
Prakash B (2010) Patient satisfaction. J Cutan Aesthet Surg 3(3):151–155. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-2077.74491
Wei HG, Camargo CA Jr (2000) Patient education in the emergency department. Acad Emerg Med Off J Soc Acad Emerg Med 7(6):710–717. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15532712.2000.tb02052.x
Shirley ED, Sanders JO (2013) Patient satisfaction: Implications and predictors of success. J Bone Joint Surg Am 95(10):e69. https://doi.org/10.2106/jbjs.L.01048
Lee L, El-Den S, Horne R, Carter SR (2019) Patient satisfaction with information, concerns, beliefs and adherence to topical corticosteroids. Patient Educ Couns 102(6):1203–1209
Świątoniowska-Lonc N, Polański J, Tański W, Jankowska-Polańska B (2020) Impact of satisfaction with physician-patient communication on self-care and adherence in patients with hypertension: cross-sectional study. BMC Health Serv Res 20(1):1046
Polinski JM, Barker T, Gagliano N, Sussman A, Brennan TA, Shrank WH (2016) Patients’ Satisfaction with and preference for telehealth visits. J Gen Intern Med 31(3):269–275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-015-3489-x
Burnett AE, Mahan CE, Vazquez SR, Oertel LB, Garcia DA, Ansell J (2016) Guidance for the practical management of the direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in VTE treatment. J Thromb Thrombolysis 41(1):206–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11239-015-1310-7
Sadiq H, Hoque L, Shi Q et al (2021) SUPPORT-AF III: supporting use of AC through provider prompting about oral anticoagulation therapy for AF. J Thromb Thrombolysis 52:808–816. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11239-021-02420-8
Gurwitz JH, Kapoor A, Garber L et al (2021) Effect of a multifaceted clinical pharmacist intervention on medication safety after hospitalization in persons prescribed high-risk medications: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med 181(5):610–618. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.9285
Mazor KM, Sabin JE, Boudreau D et al (2007) Cluster randomized trials: opportunities and barriers identified by leaders of eight health plans. Med Care 45((10 Supl 2)):S29-37. https://doi.org/10.1097/MLR.0b013e31806728c4
Samsa G, Matchar DB, Dolor RJ et al (2004) A new instrument for measuring anticoagulation-related quality of life: development and preliminary validation. Health Qual Life Outcomes 2:22. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-2-22
WH Greene 1993 Econometric Analysis. Vol Second Edition. MacMillan Publishing Company, London
Phatak A, Prusi R, Ward B et al (2016) Impact of pharmacist involvement in the transitional care of high-risk patients through medication reconciliation, medication education, and postdischarge call-backs (IPITCH Study). J Hosp Med 11(1):39–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhm.2493
Mazor KM, Baril J, Dugan E, Spencer F, Burgwinkle P, Gurwitz JH (2007) Patient education about anticoagulant medication: is narrative evidence or statistical evidence more effective? Patient Educ Couns 69(1–3):145–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2007.08.010
Zdyb EG, Courtney DM, Malik S, Schmidt MJ, Lyden AE (2017) Impact of discharge anticoagulation education by emergency department pharmacists at a tertiary academic medical center. J Emerg Med 53(6):896–903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2017.06.008
White M, Garbez R, Carroll M, Brinker E, Howie-Esquivel J (2013) Is “teach-back” associated with knowledge retention and hospital readmission in hospitalized heart failure patients? J Cardiovasc Nurs 28(2):137–146. https://doi.org/10.1097/JCN.0b013e31824987bd
Acknowledgements
No additional.
Funding
This study was funded by Grant #R18HS026859 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
Alok Kapoor has received grant support through a competitive process adjudicated and funded by the alliance formed by both Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He has also been awarded a grant by Pfizer to examine conversations between patients and providers. Jerry Gurwitz is a consultant of United HealthCare.
Ethical approval
The Institutional Review Board at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School approved this study; we obtained informed consent from all participants.
Consent to participate
The Institutional Review Board at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School approved this study; we obtained informed consent from all participants.
Consent for publication
All authors have agreed to submit the manuscript.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Pham, T., Patel, P., Mbusa, D. et al. Impact of a pharmacist intervention on DOAC knowledge and satisfaction in ambulatory patients. J Thromb Thrombolysis 55, 346–354 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11239-022-02743-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11239-022-02743-0