Coordination of Oral Anticoagulant Care at Hospital Discharge

Design: Randomized controlled pilot trial, two parallel groups, blinded outcome assessment.

Eligibility Criteria: Inclusion criteria include a) adult patients within a day of their hospital discharge from internal medicine services with a discharge prescription for an OAC intended to be taken for at least 4 weeks, b) discharge is to home or to a congregant setting such as retirement home where the patient manages their own medications, c) English-speaking and d) capable of providing informed consent. Ability to consent will be measured by the COACHeD Capacity to Consent test, requiring a score of 14 or more. If the patient does not pass, a close caregiver (defined as a family member in daily contact with the patient and involved in their medication supervision), will be invited to provide consent on the patient's behalf by signing a caregiver consent form.

Patients will be excluded if they are less than 18 years of age, have an expected lifespan of less than 3 months, will be discharged to long term care or other institution where medications are controlled by staff, or decline informed consent.

Intervention: Intervention patients will receive:

1. Interdisciplinary intervention led by a clinical pharmacologist who is a leader in evidence-based prescribing - includes a detailed discharge medication reconciliation and management plan focussed on oral anticoagulants at hospital discharge; a circle of care handover and coordination with patient, hospital team and community providers; three scheduled early post-discharge virtual medication check-up visits at 24 hours, 1 week, and 1 month with triage of any problems. Medication reconciliation is a process mandated by national accreditation bodies, with incomplete and variable uptake, which reviews hospital-administered medications compared to pre-admission medications. Medication management is the more complex task of assessing and revising medications in light of patient diagnoses, current symptoms and signs, risk factors, allergies and intolerances, other medications, goals, etc. In this study, all medications will be reviewd with a focus on OAC choice, dosage, indication, duration, potential drug interactions, patient risk factors for thromboembolism versus bleeding, drug insurance, adherence challenges and health literacy. A study pharmacist with additional training, will complete the detailed medication reconciliation.
2. Hand-overs to the community care team including the main patient caregiver (if applicable), family physician, medical specialist(s), and community pharmacist, using a templated consult summary including an OAC Monitoring Checklist (example consult note shown in Figure 2). The monitoring is based on: a) best evidence (updated guidelines and dedicated evidence review using the CLOT repository of CanVECTOR and McMaster's Health Information Research Unit), and decision aid content for patients and their families to assist in anticoagulant knowledge and adherence, b) best practices regarding discharge medication management, virtual care, scalable coordination of care with clear accountability, communication and teletriage where situations require medical intervention. All consult notes are reviewed in detail with the Clinical Pharmacologist.
3. 'Virtual visits' (secure video calls from within our electronic medical record (EMR) or phone visits where video is not possible) by the study pharmacist at three follow-up time points - 24 hours post-discharge to ensure the discharge prescription medications were obtained and understood, OAC Monitoring Checklist, review other medications, solicit concerns; and at 1 week and 1 month to ensure medication adherence, review the OAC Monitoring Checklist and other medications, and solicit concerns. After each follow-up visit, a summary consult note will be sent to all circle of care providers, and any clinical events or serious concerns will be addressed by the Clinical Pharmacologist or directed to patient's family physician via phone call or direct email. Each follow-up visit with intervention patients will be recorded and tracked to ensure adherence to protocols.
4. Teletriage- The patients have the study pharmacist's contact information and can phone for assistance at any time. The study pharmacist is in constant communication with a Clinical Pharmacologist investigator for guidance. An expert Thrombosis specialist will be available on call as needed.