The BWH Anticoagulation Service has expanded over the past two years and is now managing almost 1,200 active patients. Two pharmacists and two nurses, all with special expertise in cardiovascular pharmacology and clinical care, provide patient education, arrange for laboratory monitoring, and adjust anticoagulation dosing under the medical director’s supervision. They are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for urgent patient needs. This model of centralized service minimizes the chance of thrombotic or hemorrhagic complications.

The BWH Anticoagulation Service can provide consultation for all inpatients and can offer outpatient anticoagulation management for patients who are not covered by their physicians’ office programs. Currently, the service manages anticoagulation for patients referred from Primary Care, Orthopedics, Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Rheumatology, and Vascular Surgery. Covered services include dosing of warfarin and low molecular weight heparin, as well as “bridging” patients with low molecular weight heparin to minimize the hospital length of stay.

The service has worked closely with Peter Marks, MD, of Hematology as well as John Fanikos, RPh, MBA of Pharmacy. Samuel Z. Goldhaber, MD, medical director of the service, has organized quarterly educational seminars on anticoagulation topics.
To arrange for consultation or to be included in the list for notification of educational programs, please call ext. 2-8887. Contact Samuel Z. Goldhaber, MD at ext. 2-7566 or sgoldhaber@partners.org; Kanella Tsilimingras, RPh at ktsilimingras@partners.org; Nicole Grasso-Correnti, RN, BSN at ngrasso@partners.org; or Robert C. Goldszer MD, MBA atrgoldszer@partners.org with questions or suggestions.