What is Overactive Bladder?
Overactive bladder (OAB) is a common condition that affects millions of Americans. Overactive bladder isn’t a disease. It’s the name of a group of urinary symptoms. Having an overactive bladder prevents you from controlling when and how much you urinate. You may experience unexpected small or large leaks or use the bathroom very frequently.
OAB Pathway
OAB affects people’s lives in many ways leading to frustration, embarrassment, and changes to daily living.
Overactive Bladder Symptoms
Overactive bladder is a common condition which affects many people and manifests itself as urgency, frequency, and urgency with incontinence.
Symptoms of OAB may occur on a daily basis or may come and go unpredictably:
- Urgency: A sudden and overwhelming urge to urinate immediately
- Frequency: Urinating more than 8 times a day (Note: normal is about 4-6 times per day or every 3-5 hours)
- Urge Incontinence: Wetting accident that follows a sudden urge
- Nocturia: Waking 2 or more times during the night to urinate (Note: most people can sleep for 6-8 hours without having to urinate)
Treatment Pathway for OAB
In urology and urogynecology, OAB evaluation and treatment is standardized and involves similar evaluation and treatment approaches. There are various steps which when followed sequentially result in good symptom improvement.
Using care pathways and navigation, we are able to improve patient education, compliance, treatment success and successfully guide patients to the best possible outcome. This may be through conservative measures, medications or advanced therapies.
Creating pathways with extensive educational content and interactive navigation saves physician, nurses and patients time and ultimately may result in better outcomes and cost savings.
We hope that patients placed on pathways will help them become engaged in their care and they will receive appropriate treatment and interventions in a timely fashion with improvement in their symptoms.