Infective endocarditis (IE) remains a poorly understood disease that primarily affects either native or prosthetic heart valves. Its incidence has increased over the past two decades, now affecting 3 to 10 individuals per 100.000/year in the general population. Despite advances in early diagnosis and surgical intervention, IE continues to pose a significant challenge, often leading to severe complications and carrying a substantial burden of morbidity and mortality.
Data from the EURO-Endo registry show a drastic change in IE and provide an accurate picture of IE disease today. In European countries, it tends to affect older patients with a remarkable 12% of cases occurring in those aged ≥ 80 years. The traditional care pathway is often fragmented into multiple and potentially dangerous steps, resulting in delayed diagnosis and treatment. Such a “patchy” approach may cause suboptimal patient management, especially in the subset of frail patients with important concomitant diseases and high surgical risk.
Clinical pathways (CPs) are an evidence-based multidisciplinary care plans involving diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation phases, through which to follow patients from hospital admission to discharge, in order to manage a specific health condition, aiming to optimize patient and hospital/team outcomes, while contributing to a better organized care processes. In 2018, a working group composed by healthcare managers, infectious disease specialists, cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, geriatricians and other professionals involved in the care of IE patients have engineered a dedicated CP for IE at our institution. The CP introduced significant changes in the management of patients with IE. As a result, the quality of care and services offered increased, a faster and more appropriate diagnosis and treatment were achieved, patient outcomes and safety improved and a better coordination and continuity of care between different settings was guaranteed.
The growing burden of IE in western countries demands an evidence-based multidisciplinary care plan. The creation of a territorial network ensures continuity and appropriateness of care in conjunction with the referring physicians/hospital and rationalization of resources. Although some controversies still exist, we believe that CP will have a positive impact on quality in health care.