Jackson 2004.
| Methods | Randomised trial | |
| Participants | Patients: 128 (intervention 60; control 68)
Health professional (delivering intervention): 1
Practice: 1 Home‐based follow‐up of patients discharged from Royal Hobart acute care teaching hospital in Tasmania, Australia Year of study: Not stated. |
|
| Interventions | Pharmacist conducted home visit to test international normalised ratio (INR) and educate patients about anticoagulant therapy using printed educational materials. Pharmacist informed physicians about patients' INR, recommended dosage adjustments and implemented therapy changes, vs usual care. Length of the intervention: 24 minutes Number of interventions: 4 during 90 days | |
| Outcomes | Therapeutic INR on day 8 after discharge Total, major, and minor bleeding complications within 90 days of discharge | |
| Notes | Funding source: National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) and the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation. Roche Diagnostics Pty Ltd (Australia) contributed INR monitors and test strips. Conflict of interest: None stated |
|
| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Low risk | Patients who provided informed consent were allocated to either an intervention (home monitoring; HM) or control (usual care; UC) group, using a computer‐generated list of random numbers. |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Low risk | Patients were home‐based; allocation was probably adequately concealed. All general practitioners were sent a personalised information letter when their patient was discharged, indicating the group that the patient was enrolled in and what follow‐up they would receive. |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All Outcomes/Outcome 1 | High risk | Personnel were aware of allocation and this may have influenced treatment in ways not specified by protocol. In particular, GPs caring from UC participants have altered treatment. |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All Outcomes/Outcome 1 | Unclear risk | Theraputic INR; unclear in terms of objectivity |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Low attrition overall. Between group attrition < 10%. |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Low risk | Main results reported |
| Other bias | Low risk | None |