• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.32-45
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• 1996

Background : A critical path defines an optimal sequencing and timing of interventions by physicians, nurses, and other staff for a particular diagnosis or procedure, designed to better utilize resources, maximize quality of care, and minimize delays. It can be thought of as a visualization of the patient care process. In this study, a review of appendectomy patient records was undertaken to identify a critical path for the management of this treatment. Methods: For this study, records of patients under 15 or over 65 years of age were excluded ; cases where the patient was pregnant, or where complications developed were also excluded. The remaining 21 cases were divided into two categories according to the indication for appendectomy : for acute appendicitis, and for perforated appendix or drainage of periappendical abscess. The time frame for the review was from patient examination immediately prior to operation, through discharge. The study team was composed of a surgeon, research head nurse, education head nurse, surgical part head nurse, and medical recorder. Following their review of the 21 charts, the team determined an appropriate progression and schedule for an appendectomy. Result : Through the chart and literature review, the following aspects of the care process were identified as typical and tracked : monitoring/assessment, treatment, lines/drains, medication, activity, diet, tests and patient education. Conclusion : From this study, the design team determined two separate critical paths : one for appendectomy only, and one for appendectomy plus drainage. Next, these paths must be validated and fine-tuned through clinical implementation. In addition, a comparison of our design with the critical paths determined at other hospitals would be extremely valuable for advancing research in this area. Lastly, the critical path approach to improving patient care and maximizing hospital resources should be applied to other procedures.

• Journal of Clinical Nutrition
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.45-50
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• 2018

Purpose: Intense multidisciplinary team effort is required for the intestinal rehabilitation of patients afflicted with the short bowel syndrome (SBS). These include enteral and parenteral nutrition (PN) support, monitoring of complications related to treatment, and considering further medical or surgical options for intestinal adaptation. Methods: In the Intestinal Rehabilitation Team (IRT) at the Samsung Medical Center, we have experienced 20 cases of adult SBS requiring multidisciplinary intestinal rehabilitation. This study is a retrospective review of the collected medical records. Results: Of the 20 subjects treated, 12 patients were male and 8 patients were female. At the time of referral to the IRT, the mean age was 51.5 years, and the mean body weight was 50.1 kg, which was 90% of the usual body weight. The diseases or operative managements preceding massive bowel resection were malignancy in 11 cases, cardiac surgery in 2 cases, trauma in 2 cases and one case, each of tuberculosis, corrosive esophagitis, atrial fibrillation, simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplantation, and perforated appendicitis. Of these, there were 14 survivals and 6 mortalities. The fatalities were attributed to progression of disease, intestinal failure-associated liver disease, and sepsis (unrelated to intestinal failure) (2 cases each). Among the 14 surviving patients, 8 patients have been weaned off PN, whereas 6 are still dependent on PN (mean PN dependence 36%). Conclusion: This paper reports the results of multidisciplinary intestinal rehabilitation of adult short bowel patients treated at the Samsung Medical Center. Further studies are required to improve survival and enteral tolerance of these patients.