Unintentional missed doses of warfarin can lead to serious patient harm.

From Tuesday, 16th January, there will be a new alert in EPR to signify when an action may need to take place.

Please see the information below if you are a prescriber or a nurse. There is also a pdf guide as an attachment below.

Information for prescribers:

From Tuesday, 16th January, you may see this alert when you enter the record of a patient that is usually prescribed warfarin:

If you see it, please review the patient and any relevant results, then prescribe their warfarin dose for the current day (and any further days, if possible) or prescribe an “OMIT DOSE”, if more appropriate.

Please always check the Drug Chart for a warfarin administration task for the current day. You can read the Standard Operating Procedure on the EPR document repository https://eprdocuments.cht.nhs.uk/documents/results?term=warfarin&category=16&order=title

Information for nurses and prescribers:

You will also see a “Placeholder (Warfarin Reminder)” on the Drug Chart of patients prescribed warfarin.

This is to remind you that the patient should be prescribed a warfarin dose or an “OMIT DOSE” every day. It also enables warfarin alerts to be displayed to prescribers if the current day’s warfarin dose has not been prescribed.