The effects of a clinical pathway for interdisciplinary pain management – evidence from Germany Online publication date: Mon, 20-Dec-2010
by Tobias Romeyke, Harald Stummer
International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research (IJBHR), Vol. 2, No. 2, 2010
Abstract: High-quality inpatient care of chronic pain patients is of considerable importance in view of the numbers of people suffering from it worldwide. The introduction of a performance-oriented remuneration system brings pressure to bear on the service provider to ensure that care of the patient is not only of high quality, but is also cost-efficient. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a clinical pathway improves the quality assurance aspects of the core process of providing inpatient 'multi-modal pain therapy', while simultaneously lowering the personnel costs of the medical and medical technical service. Evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of a clinical pathway requires that the care process be analysed and the costs calculated for individual cases. The results show that using a clinical pathway enables contributions to be made to the quality of the outcome, and costs to be lowered.
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