Coumadin Clinic Overview
A Coumadin or anticoagulation clinic is a simple, convenient way to monitor and assist patients taking Coumadin or any other brand of anticoagulant or blood-thinning medication. At Lakeview Cardiology of Texas, the Clinic is a special time and place set aside for patients on these medications. Our clinics are staffed by licensed nurse practitioners and clinical pharmacists, under the supervision of our internal medicine physicians.
Benefits of Participating
- Decreased risk of potentially life threatening complications
- Immediate results, while you’re there. No more phone tag trying to get your results
- One co-payment per month to see the nurse practitioner, regardless of the number of visits within that month to regulate medication*
- One-on-one contact with a healthcare professional – Better anticoagulant monitoring/management – Increased access to education and support
How Does a Coumadin Clinic Work?
As a patient, routine private appointments are scheduled. The Pharmacist will take a drop of your blood (by finger stick) and analyze your PT/INR (Protrombin Time/International Normalized Ratio) while you wait. Results will be reviewed with you immediately and any appropriate adjustments needed to your medication dosage will be prescribed.
- Our clinic staff will use the fingerstick pinprick method, drawing one droplet of blood for the test.
- Within a few minutes, we’ll have the results of your INR test.
- The entire process, from start to finish, will last less than 30 minutes.
Instead of mining veins for a blood draw, which can often inflict a good deal of pain on the patient, the testing procedure inflicts minimal pain, and patients quickly become comfortable with the single finger prick used to get the droplet of blood.
- After reading your test results, our highly trained staff will make on-the-go adjustments to your dosage so that you’re always on the right track.
- If any prescription dosage adjustments are needed, they will be sent to your pharmacy of choice right away, and you can easily pick up your new prescription on your way home from the hospital.
- Our friendly staff will offer helpful information to ensure optimal safety while using Coumadin. We’ll provide you with tips like what foods to avoid while using Coumadin, and what medications might interfere with the medication.
- Our staff will communicate with your physician on the same day of your clinic visit to keep him or her up to date regarding your condition.