[Clinical pathway for inpatients with gastric ulcer: evaluation of usefulness]

Based on the results of a retrospective review of clinical data on inpatients with gastric ulcer treated at our department, we devised on original clinical pathway and tested it in the clinical setting. From the results obtained, we created an improved clinical pathway and evaluated its usefulness. The duration of hospitalization was 16.2 +/- 6.9 (mean +/- SD) days in the non-path group, 14.1 +/- 3.0 days in the original path group, and 10.9 +/- 2.0 days in the improved path group. The hospital time was significantly shorter in the improved path group. For patients with bleeding gastric ulcer, the duration of hospitalization was 18.0 +/- 6.3 days in the non-path group, 15.1 +/- 2.3 days in the original path group, and 11.2 +/- 1.8 days in the improved path group. This period was also significantly shorter in the improved path group. With regard to the occurrence of rebleeding from the gastric ulcers, there were no significant differences between the non-path group and both clinical path groups. These results indicate that devising a clinical pathway is useful for shortening the duration of hospitalization for patients with gastric ulcer.