BFMC Pharmacist Gives Presentation on Anticoagulant Safety

GREENFIELD — Ed Tessier, a clinical pharmacist at Baystate Franklin Medical Center, presented a paper on the safe use of anticoagulant medication at the Premier Health Annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition on June 18 in Anaheim, Calif. Premier is a multi-hospital consortium serving more than 2,100 U.S. hospitals and more than 58,000 other health care sites by collecting, analyzing, and sharing knowledge to improve health care delivery.

Since 2005, Tessier has been leading a multi-disciplinary team at BFMC charged with developing a coordinated approach to monitoring patients’ warfarin use both in the hospital and at home. Warfarin is a drug that helps prevent blood clots from forming, and it requires careful use and monitoring to ensure patient safety.

Over the past four years, BFMC’s team has standardized how warfarin is monitored in the hospital, and has developed educational booklets and videos for community-wide distribution in physician offices and at other locations throughout Franklin County. The materials encourage people to take an active role in their care — to self-advocate by asking questions, becoming informed, paying attention to their warfarin dosage, and immediately reporting any changes or concerns to their health care providers.

Baystate Franklin Medical Center is one of the first community hospitals in the nation to implement such a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to the safe use of anticoagulants. Tessier’s presentation included an overview of how the interdisciplinary team at BFMC organized their program. This design can be easily adapted by other hospitals to improve patient care and safety.

Prior to his presentation at Premier, Tessier shared the study results regionally with other hospitals in Western Mass., the Mass. Department of Public Health’s outreach program for rural hospitals throughout the state, and Hospital Pharmacists of Western Mass.

Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s broad-based community-health efforts were further recognized with an $8,500 safety award, presented to BFMC by Premier Healthcare Alliance at the Anaheim convention.