NOAC Alert Card
Northern England Clinical Network (NECN) Non-Vitamin K Oral Anticoagulant medicines (NOAC) Alert Cards
Many patients are prescribed oral anticoagulant medication to “thin the blood” and prevent strokes in the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation and to prevent blood clots spreading in patients with clots in the veins of their legs (venous thromboembolism). Patients can be prescribed warfarin or Novel or Non-Vitamin K oral anticoagulant medicines – NOAC, also more recently known as Direct Oral Anticoagulant or DOAC. Patients receiving warfarin are issued with a patient held “yellow book” which is a record of blood monitoring and dosing regimen and also acts as an alert to healthcare professionals. However, there is no such standard and easily recognisable tool for the NOACs. NECN developed a standard patient alert card for patients treated with any of the NOACs to clearly inform patients and healthcare professionals of the key safety information that they need and which, with the support of the Cardiac Rhythm Management subgroup of the North of England Clinical Network, was developed with engagement of all the stakeholders in this clinical area. This included input from the Network Stroke Advisory Group, Network Haematology Group, Network Pharmacy Group, Network Primary Care Group, Thrombosis Group, acute care physicians and patient representation groups.
The card was designed to be easily recognisable with a colour familiar to current warfarin monitoring books (bright yellow). It was launched in April 2015 across all secondary care NHS Trust pharmacies within the region (Scottish Borders to Lancashire and Yorkshire) and across all primary care and community pharmacies. Electronic education and information was provided for all pharmacists, GPs and hospital physicians using the pharmacy networks and the medicines optimisation team infrastructure. An initial supply of cards was posted to all secondary care pharmacies (with advice to distribute them across their trust sites) and to each individual community pharmacy in the region. No supply of cards was issued to GP practices although they did all receive an example card from the AHSN when the AF Card Deck was distributed. All patients taking a NOAC should be provided with an alert card and additional supplies of these can be ordered by healthcare professionals as required. To order your own supply of cards, please see the order specification.
Lead Contact: Louise Smyth, Network Delivery Lead, Northern England Clinical Network, NHS England. Email: [email protected] or Shaun Murray, Administrator & Support Officer, Northern England Clinical Networks, NHS England. Email: [email protected]