Jha, S., Moran, P., Blackwell, A. and Greenham, H. (2007)
This project was designed as a prospective cohort study to assess whether an integrated care pathway improves the services provided for continence care.
An Integrated Care Pathway (ICP) was developed at a UK district general hospital for the management of women presenting in primary care with continence problems. 65 women referred through this pathway were compared to women referred directly to Outpatients with similar problems.
The study compared time in days from referral to first medical contact, diagnosis, physiotherapy/continence advisory review, and surgery or discharge.
It was determined that the implementation of integrated care pathways enables a more efficient service provision for patients with continence problems. 35% of women were able to be managed by urogynaecology specialist nurses when attending the gynaecology outpatient department, without seeing a doctor.
European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology (2007) 134:1, 120-125