Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Tracking PT/INR

Hi,

Does anyone have a good way to track PT/INR's. When regulating Coumadin dosing, I just put it in the med list. But it would be great if there was one place where you could review the history. ie on 1/1/2011 they were on Coumadin 5 mg/day and INR was 1.5 on 1/14/2011 INR was 1.0 and coumadin increased to 6 mg M, W, F, S and 5 mg T T S, etc.
Maybe its just me, but I like to look at the trend without having to go to labs under imported items, medication list for active, then inactive meds.
Thanks for any suggestions

I usually drag (or import) a Microsoft Word template sheet with columns and rows to lab section in the imported items page and I track my INR values and Coumadin changes that way. I usually write the reason for Coumadin, the strength of the Coumadin tablet, and INR range in the first row.
I have 5 columns: date, current dose, INR, new dose and f/u visit.
You can create a password for the template, if you wish.
I add "see INR sheet" next to Coumadin in medication list.

I have also used an Excell spread sheet for a time, but I usually don't bother. If we don't hit the right dose by the third time, then we just need to have a serious talk about alcohol.

The spread sheet left a column for all seven day, and kept a running total and a daily average.

If the INR was low, and I raised the dose by one half pill twice per week, and then later I needed to raise it just a bit more, I might see the daily average was not at 5.87 mg/day, so I could just move on to the six mg dose. It made it A LOT easier to get a feel for the PERCENT of change you were making in two different patients, one taking say 2 mg per day and another taking 8 mg per day.