Randomized Clinical Trial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. Feb 6, 2017; 8(1): 81-89
Published online Feb 6, 2017. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v8.i1.81
Role of clinical pathway in improving the quality of care for patients with faecal incontinence: A randomised trial
Zeiad I Hussain, Michael Lim, Stevan Stojkovic
Zeiad I Hussain, Interventional Radiology, Guys and St Thomas Hospital, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom
Michael Lim, Department of Colorectal Surgery, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness IV2 3UJ, United Kingdom
Stevan Stojkovic, Department of Colorectal Surgery, York Hospital, York YO31 8HE, United Kingdom
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by The North and East Yorkshire Alliance Research and Development Unit and the NRES Committee of the Yorkshire and the Humber Research Ethics Office. The REC reference number is 10/H1304/27.
Informed consent statement: No participants’ identifiable information is provided. All participants have provided signed consents before participating in this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Zeiad I Hussain, Interventional Radiology Fellow, Department of Interventional Radiology, Guys and St Thomas Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom. zeiadhussain@yahoo.com
Telephone: +44-7815-092613
Received: July 7, 2016
Peer-review started: July 12, 2016
First decision: September 12, 2016
Revised: September 27, 2016
Accepted: November 21, 2016
Article in press: November 22, 2016
Published online: February 6, 2017
Processing time: 198 Days and 12.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Critical pathways and process mapping methodology was used in industry since the 1950s and in medical field since the 1980s. This randomised trial describes the implementation of the Integrated Rapid Assessment and Treatment pathway, that was designed to provide a seamless multidisciplinary care to patients with faecal incontinence in a timely fashion, and compares it to the current standard of care. Although, there was no significant difference in quality-of-life and incontinence scores after completion of management, the new pathway positively influenced patient’s mindset, as shown by the higher satisfaction scores. This is likely to reflect the structured support and thorough education patients in this group received.