To reduce the amount of hospitalizations related to warfarin misuse, University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia began using the EHR discharge summary to communicate to both patients and providers the important steps in managing treatment with warfarin. Prior to implementing this change, MU Health Care used paper forms to communicate warfarin plans.
Before implementing the EHR discharge protocol, 42 percent of patients’ discharge charts involved essential information for discharging patients on warfarin. After EHR use for warfarin education, that number increased to 78 percent.
“Of the 28 physicians and pharmacists who took part in the survey, 61 percent said that the new warfarin order was ‘user friendly and accessible,” said Margaret Day, MD, a primary care physician and medical director at MU Health Care’s Family Medicine-Keene Clinic.
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