Recently a pt was seen by gp and was advised to have their inr checked at treatment room(no inr clinic on that day), pt decided that they could not wait as there was too long of a wait so they did not think of making another appt. Pt was booked in for inr clinic as previously planned but dna'd, subsequently, the pt did not make another appt and only I saw the pt in the health centre one day he said that it had been over 3 mths since his inr was checked. Fortunately his inr was within therapeutic range and has been since but this was a significant event. Is there an easier way of doing a search for pts who have not attended within say a 2- 3mth period without having to go through every pt to check that they have all reviews, incase this happens again. Practice Nurse

Dear Lynda,
If you click the magnet icon, it brings up the patients due for INR.
RAT automatically has the defaulters at the top of this review list.
This is based on their review date.
They only get moved down the list once an INR is entered into RAT.

So I would advise you to scan this list on a regular basis for defaulters and not rely on a separate appointments system. Our treatment nurses regularly scan the list and chase up defaulters.

In this case, the patient had DNAed, but they should have been on the RAT list for a review at some stage earlier than 3 months.

Regards
Colm Rafferty