Daniel E Jonas|Betsy Bryant Shilliday|W. Russell Laundon|Michael Pignone
Patient Time Requirements for Anticoagulation Therapy with Warfarin
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
background patients receiving warfarin managed outpatient office settings anticoagulation clinics require frequent visits monitoring objective measure amount value time required patients chronic anticoagulation therapy warfarin designparticipants prospective observation cohort adult patients treated universitybased anticoagulation program measurements participants completed questionnaire prospective diary time required 1 visit anticoagulation clinic including travel waiting clinic visit authors reviewed subjects medical records obtain additional information including frequency visits anticoagulation clinic used human capital method estimate value time results eightyfive subjects completed study mean median total time per visit 147 minutes 123 subjects averaged 15 visits per year 14 spent 390 hours 293 per year visits anticoagulationrelated activities communication providers pharmacy trips extra time preparing food added average 527 hours 190 per year mean annual value patient time spent traveling waiting attending anticoagulation visits 707 median 591 mean annual value also including anticoagulationrelated activities 1799 median 1132 conclusions time required patients anticoagulation visits considerable averaging approximately 25 hours per visit almost 40 hours per year methods reducing patient time requirements homebased testing could reduce costs patients employers companions