Warfarin monitoring in nursing homes assessed by case histories. Do recommendations and electronic alerts affect judgements?

Harmonization activities of Noklus – a quality improvement organization for point-of-care laboratory examinations

Noklus is a non-profit quality improvement organization that focuses to improve all elements in the total testing process. The aim is to ensure that all medical laboratory examinations are ordered, performed and interpreted correctly and in accordance with the patients’ needs for investigation, treatment and follow-up. For 25 years, Noklus has focused on point-of-care (POC) testing in primary healthcare laboratories and has more than 3100 voluntary participants. The Noklus quality system uses different tools to obtain harmonization and improvement: (1) external quality assessment for the pre-examination, examination and postexamination phase to monitor the harmonization process and to identify areas that need improvement and harmonization, (2) manufacturer-independent evaluations of the analytical quality and user-friendliness of POC instruments and (3) close interactions and follow-up of the participants through site visits, courses, training and guidance. Noklus also recommends which tests that should be performed in the different facilities like general practitioner offices, nursing homes, home care, etc. About 400 courses with more than 6000 delegates are organized annually. In 2017, more than 21,000 e-learning programs were completed.

Treatment of atrial fibrillation in nursing homes: A place for direct acting oral anticoagulants?

Atrial fibrillation affects ~1 in 6 long-term nursing home residents. After an ischemic stroke hospitalization, ~2/3 of nursing home residents receive skilled nursing care and functional independence continues to decline, a process often complicated by rehospitalization and stroke recurrence. Due to advanced age and multimorbidity, anticoagulation is indicated for essentially all nursing home residents with atrial fibrillation. Yet as the severity of cognitive and/or functional deficits increases, the net clinical benefit of anticoagulation becomes less certain. Therefore, nursing home residents are most likely to be in need of supportive clinical evidence regarding anticoagulation, but least likely to have risk/benefit information from trials. Approximately half of US nursing home residents with atrial fibrillation have been treated with warfarin historically. Trial evidence in ambulatory older adults supports a large relative risk reduction (~50%) for stroke with warfarin versus aspirin and generally comparable bleeding risk. However, nursing home residents have a complex confluence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy that distinguishes them from healthier, non-institutionalized trial populations. Exemplifying this distinction, maintaining nursing home residents treated with warfarin within the therapeutic range has been a challenge historically, increasing the risk of adverse events. The direct acting oral anticoagulants may be a preferred therapeutic option for an indeterminate fraction of nursing home residents with atrial fibrillation. A review of the literature on anticoagulant use in nursing homes underscores the need for evidence on the effectiveness and safety of the direct acting oral anticoagulants specific to clinically complex older adults.