• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.669-689
• /
• 2002

Purpose : The purpose of the present study is to develop a clinical pathway applied with activity-based management methodology for efficient clinical management to cope with rapid changing medical environments. Method : After making a preliminary pathway based on which a conceptual frame of reference was established to develop a clinical pathway, the final one was confirmed by verifying experts validity and clinical validity. The ultimate activity-based clinical pathway was restructured after clarifying, schematizing and analyzing the whole activities of clinical pathway in accordance with the conducting process of activity-based management. Result : A clinical pathway for total hip replacement was developed, in which the vertical axis consisted of assessment, examination, consultation, medication, treatment, diet, activity, and education, and the horizontal axis was composed of six days of hospitalization. Then, on the basis of the development, the clinical pathway including the improved contents and information was restructured after making the reform measure by analyzing each of activities in the pathway. And the list of contents related to the clinical management activity was made, which was described its main contents and the pre-activities that ought to be completed before conducting each of activities in the pathway. Conclusion : The clinical pathway applied with activity-based management may be used as a standard guidance for providing continuous and consistent patient care. It will provide the information for nursing activities to nurses and the management information about hospital and nursing activities to the hospital administrators. It will also be used as a tool for communication between medical staff. Besides, it will contribute to creating profits for the hospital by shortening the length of stay in patients.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.110-123
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study was to develop a clinical pathway for the allogeneic bone marrow transplantation donor. For this study, a conceptual framework was developed through a review of the literature including six steps which are using in Jones Hopkins Hospital. USA. The researcher reviewed 129 medical re-cords of donor who had bone marrow donation between January 2002 to January 2004, to identify the overall service contents required by these patients and to make a preliminary clinical pathway. A content validity test was done for the preliminary clinical pathway, a professional group screened 51 medical re-cords and adopted with 3 hospitalization days as the clinical pathway framework. In the fifth step, clinical pathway test was also done to 7 donors from April 28th to July, 2004. After these processes the final clinical pathway was developed. The results of this study are as follows: 1. The vertical axis of the clinical pathway Includes the following 9 items: vital signs, nursing assessment, activity, diet, intervention, medication, test, consultation and patient teaching. The duration of the horizontal axis was 3days from admission to discharge 2. Analysis of the 129 medical records indicated that the average length of stay was 3 4 days. The medical performance according to the vertical axis in the preliminary clinical pathway consisted of 51 items After clinical validity test, it steel consisted of 51 items in the final form. 3. Clinical Validity test was done to 7 bone marrow donors. During these process, The first patient was deleted because he was out of the criteria the investigate set and 6 patients were used, finally The result of this study indicated all of 7 donors were discharged on expected day. 4. Clinical pathway enables to improve the quality of care, multidisciplinary team work It also helps nursing bone marrow donor, effective education to donor or medical member. The results of this study suggest that clinical pathway may be able to improve the quality of nursing care for bone marrow transplantation donors.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.23-32
• /
• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this research is to develop the clinical pathway for optimizing the integrative medical service (oriental-western integrated medical service) and to analyze the clinical pattern of the integrative patients who received the oriental-western integrated medical service. Methods : This research developed the clinical pathway by interviewing with doctors, nursing and experts at K Medical Center. To analyze the clinical patterns, this research used 860 integrative patients and 6345 non-integrative patients at K Medical Center since 2007. Results and Conclusions : 1. We developed the clinical pathway for optimizing the integrative medical service. 2. Comparing the clinical pattern of the integrative patients with the non-integrative patients, the results indicated that the interval and frequency of the integrative patients is shorter than that of the non-integrative patients. 3. Comparing the medical treatment type, the integrated patients take much more medical care and more frequently participate in medical treatment. 4. In conclusion, it is different that the clinical pathway of the integrative medical service from the non-integrative medical service and the integrative medical treatment is more effective than the non-integrative medical treatment.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.176-189
• /
• 2003

Background : Gastric cancer is the most common malignant tumor in Korea. Surgical operation is one of the major treatment modalities for gastric cancer patients. Therefore, gastrectomy is one of the most common procedures in General Surgery. There were variation in length of hospital stay and medical treatment for gastrectomy between three surgeons at Asan Medical Center. Clinical pathways have received considerable attention as a tool for reducing the medical practice variation, increasing the efficiency of care process, and improving the quality of care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a clinical pathway for gastrectomy in gastric cancer patients. Methods : The clinical pathway for gastrectomy was developed and implemented by a multidisciplinary group in Asan Medical Center. A computerized clinical pathway program was developed and revised after a pilot test. A total of 145 patients underwent gastrectomy by three surgeons at Asan Medical Center. We compared the length of hospital stay, patient satisfaction, and the unplanned readmission rate between the pre-pathway group (n=67) and the post-pathway group (n=78). We also investigated the degree of satisfaction among the physicians and nurses who were main end-users of the clinical pathway. Results : The clinical pathway was applied to all target patients. The average length of hospital stay was shortened from 12.7days to 10.6days (p<0.01). The degree of patient satisfaction with the care process changed from 90.3% to 89.2% after the implementation of the clinical pathway, but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.761). Unplanned readmission rate was 2.9% in the pre-pathway group and 0% in the post-pathway group. More than 90% of physicians and nurses answered that the clinical pathway had been a useful tool in their medical practice. Conclusions : The findings of the study demonstrated that implementation of the clinical pathway for gastrectomy produced substantial reduction in the length of hospital stay while improving the quality of patient outcomes. The computerized clinical pathway program can be used as one of the powerful patient management tools for reducing the practice variations and increasing the efficiency of care process in Korean hospital settings.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.111-119
• /
• 2017

Objectives Clinical pathway (CP), is management plans that display goals for patients and have led to improve outcomes for many diseases. In Korea, Interest in Korean medicine's stabilization (Clinical pathway, Clinical Practice Guideline) is increasing, But the number of studies is scare. Method and Analysis This trials composes nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design to conduct clincal pathway trial for the acute pain after back surgery. The subjects were 10 control patients with back surgery, and 10 experimental patients with application of integrative CP. Each group patient will observed 6 weeks. We check validation of CP. Also we compared the patient's status using the pain, function, Quality of life index between the two groups. Discussion This trial is the first CP for the acute pain after back surgery using integrative medicine concepts. Aim of this trial is to find the effectiveness and validity of clincal pathway for acute pain after back surgery.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.98-105
• /
• 2013

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical factors affecting on the cure rate by invasive and open surgery for gastric cancer and to establish a subgroup of patients who can be applied by the early recovery after surgery program through this retrospective analysis. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, we analyzed 425 patients who underwent gastric cancer surgery between January 2011 and December 2011 and were managed with conventional clinical therapies. This clinical algorithm was made when the patient was in minimally invasive surgery group and discharged from hospital one day faster than them in open surgery group. Results: The completion rate of the clinical pathway was 62.4%. Despite the different applications of clinical pathway, completion rate in minimally invasive surgery group was significantly higher than that of open group (P<0.001). In multivariate analysis, the surgical procedure of minimally invasive surgery (odds ratio=4.281) was the most predictable factor to complete clinical pathway. Additionally, younger patients (odds ratio=1.933) who underwent distal gastrectomy (odds ratio=1.999) without combined resection (odds ratio=3.069) were predicted to accomplish the clinical pathway without any modifications. Conclusions: We concluded that high efficacy of the clinical pathway for gastric cancer surgery was expected to selected patients through retrospective analysis (expected completion rate=85.4%). In addition, these patients would become enrolled criteria for early recovery program in gastric cancer surgery.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.178-184
• /
• 2023

The objective of this study was to develop a critical pathway of integrative medicine to improve the quality of life of lung cancer patients who received standard western medicine treatments. A total of 10 medical professionals, including western and Korean medicine doctors, and nurses participated in a validation survey and revised clinical pathway. Then we applied the critical pathway to 11 lung cancer patients who admitted at Korean medicine hospital and evaluated quality of life at the beginning and discharge of admission using European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire(EORTC QLQ). More than 80% of the respondents gave a score of 3 (appropriate) or more for all items in the validation survey and we modified the clinical pathway by adding 'bed rest'to the activity item. When applying the revised critical pathway to 11 lung cancer patients, the score of 'Nausea and vomiting', 'Insomnia' in EORTC QLQ-30 and 'chest pain'in EORTC LC-13 showed statistically significant improvements in the before-and-after admission comparision. The application of revised inpatient critical pathway of integrative medicine for lung cancer showed improvement in some symptoms. Development of more critical pathway in various clinical setting and larger scaled application studies of critical pathway are needed.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.75-90
• /
• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study protocol is firstly to investigate the status of Korean medical treatment of dysmenorrhea, and secondly to investigate effectiveness of the Clinical Pathway (CP) of dysmenorrhea and review the applicability. Methods: This is a multi-center observational study. The data will be prospectively collected from 14 Korean medicine clinics. 45 patients for each of the CP-applied and non-applied groups will be recruited to compare the degree of improvement in menstrual pain. All the diagnosis records, treatment methods, treatment results, adverse events, and medical expenses of patients with dysmenorrhea will be collected. We will investigate the proportion of patients who could be applied with CP, and the actual number of CP applications, and CP completion rate to evaluate the applicability. Additionally, the satisfaction survey will be used to collect feedback from medical staff members and patients. Results: The results of this study will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and scientific presentations. Conclusions: This study is expected to provide valuable data for application of standard Korean medicine clinical pathway for dysmenorrhea.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.85-95
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study was to develope a critical pathway for the chemotherapy of non-small cell lung cancer patients and to identify its effects after implementation. Critical pathway was developed through 5 steps including content and clinical validity tests with collaborative efforts of nurses, clinicians, and other allied healthcare professionals with the aim of improving the quality of patient care, while minimizing cost to the patients. This paper was described an evaluation of the impact of a developed critical pathway on complication rate, length of stay, costs, the interval of treatment and patient satisfaction by nonequivalent control group posttest-only non-synchronized research design.Results were compared between the two groups of patients. There were no significant differences in demographic variables and the occurrence of bone marrow suppression between experimental group and control group(t=-0.01, p=0.992). There were statistically significant decreases in the average length of stay(t=-10.45, p=0.000), in the average cost(t=-2.988, p=0.004), and in the interval of treatment(t=-6.75, p=0.000) after implementation of the critical pathway compared to control group. Also, there was a statistically significant improvement of the patient satisfaction after implementation of the critical pathway compared to control group(t=4.57, p=0.000). This paper concludes that critical pathway in chemotherapy for lung cancer, implemented in the context of an general hospital, is the useful tool to shorten the hospital stay, reduce treatment costs, and improve the quality of life in cancer patients. Further study needs to be conducted to identify other clinical outcomes including job satisfaction, collaboration among health professionals and potential for use in education. Also, it is recommended that nurses should revise continuously the developed critical pathway through clinical implementation and maintain their role of patient advocacy through monitoring pathway compliance.

• Women's Health Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.316-325
• /
• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a Critical Pathway for Uterine Artery Embolization patients. Method: There were 6 steps that were taken. Step 1 was selecting a diagnosis, and Step 2 was organizing a development team consisting of 7 experts. Step 3 analyzed the medical records, and Step 4 drew up a preliminary Critical Pathway. Step 5 tested the clinical validity of the preliminary Critical Pathway, and Step 6 developed the final Critical Pathway. Result: The contents of the medical practices observed in the medical records were investigated in seven areas: monitoring/assessment, treatment, medication, diet, activity, consults, and education/discharge plan; and a total of 73 items was identified. The validity of the 73 items was examined by a group of specialists. 68 items were adopted, 4 items revised, 1 item removed, and 1 item was added. Using the results, a preliminary Critical Pathway was drawn up. According to the results from examining the clinical validity of the preliminary Critical Pathway with five patients for five weeks, 3 items which showed discrepancy were revised and another 3 items were added. Then, the final Critical Pathway was completed. Conclusion: This Critical Pathway needs to be clinically applied and continuously to measure its effects in terms of the length of stay, cost.effectiveness, and the patients' and staffs' satisfaction.