title: [Important meanings of the critical path in risk management].
abstract: The wave of change that roared through other industries has now reached healthcare. New care management and process improvement tools are emerging. Foremost among those tools will be critical pathways. Critical pathway documents describe care processes for a specific patient population. They explicitly show what will occur during the course of treatment; which care providers will perform the activities; and what outcomes are expected from the activities. Critical pathway system includes the tools to accomplish risk management, stuff communication, quality control, stuff education, and discharge management. And furthermore, critical pathway documents give healthcare providers tools to deal with the most important changes in health care; disclosure, standardization, specification outcome, making care algorithm, and continuous quality improvement. These risk management systems in a critical pathway program are critical to the success of the overall medical care process. And vital to the success of a critical pathway system is the standardization of healthcare and the variance management system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Kumamoto Saiseikai Hospital, 5-3-1 Chikami, Kumamoto 861-4193, Japan.
authors.forename: Harumichi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Senda
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003142:Communication; D019091:Critical Pathways / Q000592:standards*; D030881:Disclosure; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D012308:Risk Management / Q000592:standards*