A new ordering system was introduced at the Kumamoto Medical Center, and the conventional paper base critical pathway of the educational hospitalization for diabetes mellitus was computerized. Computerized critical pathway anticipated 10-day hospital stay compared to 14-day of the previous paper base pathway. We examined the compliance and variance of the new pathway, as well as the impact on hospitals stay and the proportion of those who achieve the discharge standard. Average length of staywas 12.03±3.41 days; the proportions of those who were discharged within the scheduled hospitals days and who achieved the discharge standard were 58.6% and 100%, respectively. Most of the variances were derivedfrom patient factors. Nutrition guidance and medicine management guidance were offered to 58.82±23.41% and 70.69±36.64% of patients, respectively. As the hospital staff becomes accustomed to the new pathway, it is expected that the compliance will increase as well as the proportion of those who achieve the discharge standard and receive medicine management guidance. As for the nutrition guidance, the impact of revision of reimbursement tariff and poor communication among medical staff seemed to have contributed to the low compliance.
We found that the new computerized critical pathway was useful compared to the paper base pathway although there is room for improvement.