Clinical pathway implementation in the acute care hospital setting.
A study was conducted to assess the current status of clinical path implementation for acute care cases and to explore implementation issues related to defining discharge outcomes and measuring variances in clinical paths. Results indicated that documentation, identification of critical indicators and discharge outcomes, and variance detection and correction are three core issues that must be addressed by institutions that implement clinical paths. A discussion of each of these areas is provided.
Little
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Department of Marketing, Cleveland State University, OH, USA.
Whipple
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TW
D019091:Critical Pathways / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004282:Documentation; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D016730:Program Development / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012015:Reference Standards; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States