title: Development of clinical pathways for stroke management: an example from Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City.
abstract: Clinical pathways for stroke are important tools for improved case management and outcome assessment. The clinical path created at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City is described here. It evolved through the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team of clinical experts and is still evolving. Ideally, a clinical path should be used as a guide rather than a standard of care, which is to be individualized for each patient. This article describes the methods for writing the pathways and how they are used for documentation. It also summarizes how the pathway data support stroke outcome assessment.
authors.affiliation: Saint Luke's Hospital Stroke Center, Kansas City, Missouri 64111, USA.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Rymer
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Summers
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Soper
mesh_terms: D019090:Case Management / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D019091:Critical Pathways / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000191:economics; D004282:Documentation; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007615:Kansas; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010348:Patient Care Team; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D020521:Stroke / Q000191:economics / Q000451:nursing / Q000628:therapy*