Participant perspectives from the Indian Health Service Anticoagulation Training Program.

Background: The Indian Health Service Anticoagulation Training Program serves to improve patient safety through advanced anticoagulation management training. Although post-program evaluations of program content were conducted at the time of program delivery, little is known about translation of these learned skills into clinical practice.

Objective: This research sought to describe levels of self-reported participant confidence in anticoagulation management; development, implementation, and performance management of both core and supplemental activities of anticoagulation clinics or services; and current anticoagulation clinical practices subsequent to participating in the Anticoagulation Training Program.

Setting: A federal Indian Health Service healthcare facility in Oklahoma, USA.

Methods: A cross-sectional, electronic mail survey was designed, pretested, and administered to 267 eligible Anticoagulation Training Program participants from 1999 to 2009. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and interpreted to identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement.

Main Outcome Measures: Information about confidence in anticoagulation management skills; development, implementation and improvement of both core and supplemental activities of anticoagulation clinics or services; and current anticoagulation clinical practices was collected.

Results: After training, over 90 % of participants reported agreement/strong agreement with statements about confidence in performing patient-care related anticoagulation activities. A smaller proportion (83.3-85.4 %) reported agreement/strong agreement with confidence in measuring, analyzing and reporting anticoagulation outcomes. Improvement activities were more common than development or implementation activities (65.4, 31.9 and 35.1 %, respectively). Not having well established reimbursement procedures, lack of dedicated clinic space, and lack of dedicated personnel salaries (47.3, 38.3 and 32.6 %, respectively) were reported as the most common barriers to developing, implementing or improving an anticoagulation clinic. Participants indicated that anticoagulation outcomes tracking was the most common supplemental development, implementation and improvement activity (37.9, 37.0 and 43.8 % respectively). Benchmarking was the least commonly reported outcomes-related activity by participants (33.6 %). Although there was only a modest gain in the number of established anticoagulation clinics after attending the Anticoagulation Training Program, approximately 21 % of participants reported using skills learned to establish other disease state management clinics.

Conclusion: In general, a majority of participants reported high levels of confidence related to direct patient care activities after attending the Anticoagulation Training Program. However there is a need to raise confidence in performance improvement and outcomes management activities to align with current accreditation standards in anticoagulation management as the Anticoagulation Training Program evolves.