| Theme |
Clinical Pathway for Digestive Diseases |
| Title |
Problems and Solutions in Implementing Clinical Path |
| Author |
Eiichi Tomita |
Department of Gastroenterology, Gifu Municipal Hospital |
| Author |
Kiyoko Nagata |
Nursing Department, Gifu Municipal Hospital |
| Author |
Akihiro Kan-no |
Department of Surgery, Gifu Municipal Hospital |
| Author |
Jun-ichi Sugihara |
Department of Hepatology, Gifu Municipal Hospital |
| Author |
Hiromi Tanemura |
Department of Surgery, Gifu Municipal Hospital |
| [ Summary ] |
The concept of clinical path is considered to be useful in the field of gastrointestinal diseases for shortening the duration of hospitalization, reducing medication costs and enhancing the uniformity of treatment. Two types of clinical paths exist, consisting of those such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy, liver biopsy and endoscopic polypectomy having a low level of variance, and those such as IFN and ERCP having a high level of variance. Carefully analyzing the nature of the variance and adding respective countermeasures and modifications makes it possible to increase the frequency of use and create a path corresponding to the particular disease state. In addition, variance provides valuable data regarding individual patients, and should never be used to fit a patient to a particular clinical path. It is believed that a careful analysis of variance makes it possible to take advantage of the clinical path. |