Effect of clinical pathway on outcome of CABG surgery

Summary:

In an era of increasing competition in medical care, critical pathways guidelines have emerged as one of the most popular new initiatives intended to improve the quality of care and patient satisfaction while decreasing costs and resource utilization. Clinical pathways are care plans that detail the essential steps in patient care with a view to describing the expected progress of a patient.

Coronary artery bypass surgery is one of the most common, high volume and high cost operations. Only few controlled studies in the area of clinical pathways and coronary artery bypass surgery were performed to detect the effect of pathways on outcome of coronary artery bypass surgery, and none followed up patients for long term outcome.

This study is conducted in collaboration with the Department of Thoracic surgery in the UMCG. The study design is a longitudinal observational study with a matched experimental and control group. The Sample comprise of a control and experimental group, 120 patients in each group. The groups are matched according to Euro score, Age and gender. Outcomes measured include short term outcomes Short term Up to 30 days after surgery as Morbidity & Mortality, Complications, pain, Length of stay, Readmission rate, nurses satisfaction and workload. Long term six months after surgery : Morbidity & Mortality, Health complaints, Quality of life, Ability to work, Use of health services, anxiety and depression, vital exhaustion, and Patient satisfaction.