As the income and education levels improve, health care is considered to be a right that everyone is entitled to a proper medical care in Korea. The change in the perspective of access to health care services has initiated a great increase in demands ...
As the income and education levels improve, health care is considered to be a right that everyone is entitled to a proper medical care in Korea. The change in the perspective of access to health care services has initiated a great increase in demands of high quality health care. The increased demands have imposed the responsibility for providers to be more conscious of efficiency and effectiveness in providing medical care. The application of critical pathway(CP) method in the medical practices is one way of responses for health care organization to fulfill the responsibility. The CP sets goals in advance and makes efforts to achieve the goals in the most efficient way. The CP is a multi-disciplinary planning for patient management, providing a proper arrangement of medical actions within a time frame.
The purpose of this study is the development of CP, which provides a quality total knee replacement arthroplasty (TKRA) service within a resonable range of costs. The baseline data for the study were collected from the medical records of the 50 cases of TKRA performed and their expense occurrence data in a general hospital. Based on the results of data analysis and the recommendations of the CP development team, a CP model that standardizes the necessary medical treatments, eliminates the unnecessary or improper treatment and minimizes the waste of resources is developed.
The quality of care aspects of the CP were validated by a positive evaluation of two orthopedists and by the relatively low level of within 1 month after discharge re-hospitalization rate (1.5%). The costs of performing the CP were within the rage intended which was less than 6,000,000 Won with average costs 5,600,000 Won.