Development and Application of Critical Pathway for Orbital Wall Fracture Patients

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to develop and apply the critical pathway to the orbital wall fracture patients and to elucidate its effect. METHODS: Critical pathway(CP) sheet and questionnaire were developed by a team approach. Critical pathway was applied to 7 orbital wall fracture patients (CP group) from April 2006 to September 2006. Length of hospitalization and cost for hospitalization of CP group were compared to those of the 10 patients who had same disease entities and treated by conventional regimen(control group). RESULTS: Length of hospitalization in the CP group (7.20 day) were insignificantly shorter than that of control group(8.71 day). Mean cost for hospitalization of the CP group(776,398 won) were insignificantly lower than that of control group(1,028,531 won). The patients satisfaction for the explanation regarding operation procedure, therapeutic operation fee, length of hospitalization and medical personnel were all affirmative. CONCLUSION: Critical pathway that we developed for orbital wall fracture definitely improved the quality of treatment. Furthermore, other critical pathways should be developed for another facial trauma patients.