Anticoagulation Across Care Transitions: Identifying Minimum Data to Maximize Drug Safety

摘要

Adverse drug events (ADEs) are one of the most common and costly causes of iatrogenic patient harm, and anticoagulants are the leading cause of acute, serious ADEs among hospitalized patients, long term care residents, and older outpatients.~(1-5) In the United States, hospitalization costs associated with anticoagulant ADEs have been estimated at more than $2.5 billion,~6 and in 2016 more than $5 billion was spent on anticoagulants in Medicare Part D claims.~7 Accordingly, reducing patient harm associated with anticoagulation has been a Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG.03.05.01) since 2008,~(8,9) is one of three main focus areas of the 2014 Department of Health and Human Services National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention,~(10) and is a key component of the ongoing Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Quality Innovation Network and Hospital Improvement Innovation Network efforts to improve patient safety.~(11,12) In an article, "Defining Minimum Necessary Anticoagulation-Related Communication at Discharge: Consensus of the Care Transitions Task Force of the New York State Anticoagulation Coalition," in this issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, Triller and colleagues take another important step on the long road to achieving safer and more effective anticoagulation by proposing the core information that needs to be communicated among providers as patients treated with anticoagulants make the transition between health care settings.~(13)