An audit of INR control in the Australian Indigenous setting

BACKGROUND: Warfarin management can be difficult; many factors can impact on INR control with some factors being unique to the Australian indigenous setting. METHODS: An audit at an urban Aboriginal community controlled health service calculated the time all patients on warfarin were in the target INR therapeutic range. Those patients with the best and the worst values for time in therapeutic range (TTR) were then compared. RESULTS: The 26 identified patients on warfarin were in the target INR therapeutic range 44.9% of the time. Patients with better INR control were older than those with the worst control. There appeared to be no difference between the two groups when comparing other factors. DISCUSSION: INR control was below the cited benchmark for TTR of 60%. However, this may be better than expected in this clinical setting. The small number of patients included in the audit means that any discussion of the causes of better and poorer control must be treated with caution.