We are currently trialing RATS, we have noticed that although it says review in one week, the date does not always match this. It has been noted that the date is actually 11 days rather than a week. Is this normal for the program, or an error?
Thanks

Dear Lindsay,
The reason for the discrepancy is because you have RAT setup to have a weekly clinic. Most practices do this. RAT will allocate the date for that week to coincidence with the weekly clinic. RAT will pick the closest weekly clinic.

This is to try and coordinate patients so that they do not arrive ad-hocly on various days in the week.

If the review period is less than 1 week then RAT just counts forward the 1,2 or 3 days. This can sometimes fall on a weekend day so you need to take account of this also.

Another date discrepancy can sometimes occur near the end of short term warfarin treatment e.g. DVT. If the review date falls after the date to end treatment, RAT will give 2 dates,
e.g. if todays INR is normal (27/4/10) and treatment is to end on 1/5/10. RAT might say:
review in 6 weeks, 1/5/10
This gives the flexibilty to continue warfarin beyond the end date if that is appropriate.

Regards
Colm Rafferty