Abstract
Purpose :
To establish and implement a standard clinical pathway for cataract surgical management, and to evaluate the value of its health economics effect.
Methods :
The existing process of cataract surgical management was used as control. Then an optimized standard clinical pathway was established and implemented. The data of the hospitalization expenses, the average hospitalization days and the treatment effects of surgery were collected from the standard clinical pathway patients and the original process patients. All the data were analyzed by using t test.
Results :
The hospitalization expenses were significantly reduced when a standard clinical pathway for cataract surgical management was implemented. Among the hospitalization expenses, the cost of drugs and room and board was decreased (p<0.05 vs control group) while the cost of inspection and surgery was similar (p>0.05 vs control group). The average hospitalization days were shortened half to one day (p<0.01 vs control group). The eyesight was similarly raised after the surgical management in all patients (p>0.05 vs control group).
Conclusions :
A standard clinical pathway for cataract surgical management could obviously reduce the hospitalization expenses, shorten the average hospitalization days and ensure the surgery quality. The establishment of clinical pathway should adapt to the local health and economic level. And the implement of clinical pathway should consider the requirements from patients.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.