Abstract
Since July 1999 140 paper base critical pathways were developed and used at the Kagawa Rosai hospital, which totaled 25% of the discharged patients. When the Order Entry System (OES) was introduced in 2004, the critical pathway was treated as one of the orders. In 2007, when electronic medical records were introduced, the critical pathway was regarded as a keystone of the system, and it was further used in daily medical examinations and at present about 450 critical pathways are in use, a total of about 70% of the discharged patients.
The critical pathway software was improved as follows:
1) The information of each medical section is reflected in a critical path screen so that information sharing was achieved.
2) The software and information is accessible from all medical sections by the critical pathway screen.
3) Access to individual characteristics of patients is possible.
4) Efficiency is increased by the reduction of repetitive statements.
5) Outcome evaluation using a clinical index can be performed.
6) Cost accounting corresponding to Diagnosis Procedure Combination is possible.
The above-mentioned software improvements were actually reported at the Kagawa Rosai hospital.
