This proposal requests support for the researchers to describe variation in current treatment and patient outcomes for patients with VTE disease at an academic teaching hospital, and for the development of an integrated care pathway to introduce new treatment strategies across the continuum of care. The investigators propose a two phase study. In the first, data will be collected via retrospective chart review on costs of care and outcomes for patients with VTE at this medical center over a one year period. An ongoing study of the natural history of deep vein thrombosis will provide an opportunity to interview a subset of the patients to collect qualitative and quantitative information on their experience and outcomes. Prior experience suggests that about 95 patients will be identified with deep vein thrombosis from the vascular noninvasive laboratory, and that about half will have been enrolled in the ongoing study. No data on the volume of patients with pulmonary embolism are presented. Detailed clinical data will be available for the subset of patients who are enrolled in the ongoing study of DVT. Cost and length of stay data will be obtained from the small subset of patients treated at the medical center. Data analysis for Phase I would be descriptive. In Phase II, a multidisciplinary team would be organized to develop an integrated care pathway. A model for work group performance is described in the proposal. This team will develop the pathway, and develop an implementation strategy. No statistics will be involved in describing the process of this team's formation and function.
| Zierler, Brenda K; Meissner, Mark H; Cain, Kevin et al. (2002) A survey of physicians' knowledge and management of venous thromboembolism. Vasc Endovascular Surg 36:367-75 |
