Outcome of Pharmaceutical Care by Counseling Aid for Outpatient With Heart Operation and Receiving Warfarin at Queen Sirikit Heart Center of the Northeast Khon Kaen University

Abstract

This study was randomized controlled trial. The objectives of this study were to assess the outcome of pharmaceutical care by counseling aids for outpatient who had heart operation within six months and received medication with warfarin from 7 January to 14 February 2008 at Queen Sirikit Heart Center of the Northeast Khon Kaen University. The patients were randomized into two groups, intervention and control groups. The intervention group received pharmaceutical care from a researcher and received video compact disk (VCD), which give an instruction about warfarin use self-care and warfarin-taking calendar. The control group received the standard intervention from pharmacists without receiving the VCD. Patient’s knowledge score and their International normalize ratio (INR) were accessed at the second visit. One hundred and eight patients enrolled into the study, they were randomized into 2 groups, 54 patients in both of the intervention and control groups. The results demonstrated that percentage of patients who achieved INR target goal in the intervention group were significantly higher than the control group (p=0.02). Patients’ knowledge in the intervention group were significantly higher than the control group. Patient’s satisfaction score of the intervention group were higher than the control group. Pharmaceutical care with counseling aids with the VCD of patient’s instruction, knowledge chart and warfarin-taking calendar are important factor to improve INR controlling and knowledge of patient.