Implementation of an inpatient anticoagulation teaching service: Expanding the role of pharmacy students and residents in patient education

PURPOSE: The implementation of and early experience with an anticoagulation teaching service managed by pharmacy students and residents are described. SUMMARY: A structured anticoagulation teaching program was established to improve the provision of education services to inpatients scheduled for discharge home on anticoagulant therapy (consistent with the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goal 03.05.01). The program served patients at three affiliated institutions and was designed to supplement pharmacists' usual anticoagulation education activities. After completing supervised training in anticoagulation education and documentation procedures, pharmacy students and residents on rotation at the facilities staffed the service three days per week for five hours per day. In the first five months of operation, the teaching service significantly increased the rate of anticoagulation patient education (to 59.2%, compared with 39.1% during a specified five-month preimplementation period; p < 0.0001). Among patients educated through the teaching service, 60-day readmission rates for both anticoagulation-related and nonanticoagulation-related problems were lower than readmission rates among patients not receiving the structured education services. CONCLUSION: Implementing an anticoagulation teaching service provided by pharmacy students and residents significantly increased the rate of patient education and lowered readmission rates.