PURPOSE: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a major cause of maternal death. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of clinical pathway (CP) and off-hours effects in PPH patients who visit the emergency department. METHODS: A retrospective study of PPH patients who visited the emergency department between December 1, 2005 and February 28, 2014 was conducted. A multidisciplinary team was designed for PPH in August 1, 2009. We compared time to intervention, volume of transfusion, length of stay (LOS), and uterus preservation rate between the before CP group and after CP group. RESULTS: A total of 143 post CP groups were compared with 101 before CP visits. Time to operation was less compared with the pre CP group (77 min (22-140) vs 47.5 min (13-114) p=0.011). Volume of transfusion and admission to intensive care units (ICU) were increased in the post CP group. (2 (0-16) vs 2 (0-25) p=0.045, 20 (19.8%) vs 54 (37.8%) p=0.003) LOS of ICU was lower than in the pre CP group and uterus preservation was higher than in the pre CP group. (0 day (0-43) vs 0 day (0-6) p=0.015, 82 (81.2%) vs 129 (90.2%) p=0.042) Time to angiographic embolization was less in the post-CP group with on-duty visits than in post-CP with off hours visits. (38.50 min (16-112) vs 71.0 min (28-633), p=0.025) CONCLUSION: A clinical pathway for PPH is associated with improvement of uterine preservation rate and reduced LOS of ICU. However this CP could not eliminate off-hour effects from time to intervention.
Critical Pathways* ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Medicine ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Length of Stay ; Maternal Death ; Postpartum Hemorrhage* ; Postpartum Period* ; Retrospective Studies ; Uterus