Clinical pathway for bleeding peptic ulcers

Abstract

We devised and evaluated a clinical pathway (CP) protocol for patients with bleeding peptic ulcers (BPU). Patients without severe comorbidities, who had been diagnosed with BPU and who had undergone endoscopic treatment, were enrolled in our study. The CP adaptation rate for BPU patients was 78.8% (89/113). The variance rate was 13.5% (12/89). The median length of admission was 10.0±4.6 days (n=78) before and 7.4±2.9 days (n=77) after introducing CP. Our CP for BPU was safe and resulted in shorter hospital stays and, therefore, cost reductions. In elder patients, our CP was also successful, but the variance rate was higher than in younger patients.