hospital impact

by Christopher Cornue

During a routine inspection of a hospital in England by the Healthcare Commission in the late 1990s, a concern was raised regarding hospitals not having consistent, evidence-based, standardized care paths. From this, approximately a decade later, the Map of Medicine was launched.

Developed for use by the National Health Service in England and Wales, this tool was created as a framework for sharing knowledge across care settings and providing evidence-based care pathways to clinicians at the point of care. This electronic, website-based tool is an impressive collection of more than 700,000 articles and resource materials. While it is “localizable” as needed, it’s an awesome repository of information. As stated on their website, “for the first time all NHS staff such as doctors, nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, healthcare scientists and trust managers will have access to a single view of the best clinical information and latest guidelines relevant to a patient’s pathway and approved by NHS experts.”

While most physicians have a good sense of particular pathways to follow with patients, this tool is best used for those situations and conditions that are less familiar to the general practitioner. Research conducted has indicated that 80% of physicians will change the care they provide as the result of evidence-based knowledge. Among other desirable results, it’s been estimated that 12% more hospitalizations could be avoided and a 19% reduction in length of stay could be achieved as a result of practice changes based upon evidence-based information.

The Map of Medicine is being rolled out to all hospitals in England and Wales as an additional resource for physicians and to assist in NHS’ clinical governance. Dr. Michael Stein, Chief Medical Officer for the Map of Medicine, stated they are in discussion with some other countries to see if this would be adopted elsewhere. Who knows if it (or something similar) might be a resource available in your hospital in the near future?