Inevitably, several times a year, while reviewing a patient’s medications, notes, labs, etc. I will come across a lab that was drawn on an individual that is totally puzzling to me. You may see Coumadin discontinued due to various reasons, but many times it is due to high risk of bleeding or something similar to this. What you need to remember to try to prevent unnecessary labwork is to discontinue associated lab monitoring with that medication (in this case obviously INR). Another example might be if a seizure medication is discontinued (i.e. Depakote), or maybe a statin is discontinued due to comfort or hospice type care. If you ever see medications that require routine labwork get discontinued, get the associated lab discontinued BEFORE the lab is drawn unnecessarily. Save everyone some time, a potential needle stick, and money!
Discontinuing Labwork With Medications
4 Comments
Submit a Comment Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Written By Eric Christianson
i want book but unable to get it
Sorry to hear that…I think Amazon has some areas that they block out, but I wanted to get it in front of a larger audience…my apologies that you can’t get it. You may want to try to reach out to Amazon and ask why? – Thanks, Eric
What lab work would be discontinued along with a statin?
Liver Function Tests for Statins