title: [Guidelines and clinical pathways. Is there really a difference?].
abstract: Quality Design Activities of Good Clinical Practice guidelines or protocols and clinical pathways (CP) include those clinical plans intended for the patients with a particular disease. They must be based on the clinical evidence, the analysis of the process, and the consensus of the professionals involved in the care of the patient. When these are introduced to surgical professionals, they usually say that they do not understand the the difference between CP and protocols or guidelines. In fact we are speaking quality design activities with the same objectives of decreasing the unjustified variability and helping in the decision making on a specific clinical problem. In this work we attempt to show the differences by defining what is understood by a clinical pathway and protocol or guideline.
authors.affiliation: Hospital General de Alicante, Alicante, España.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romero Simó
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Soria Aledo
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruiz López
authors.forename: Elías
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rodríguez Cuéllar
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Aguayo Albasini
mesh_terms: D002985:Clinical Protocols; D019091:Critical Pathways; D013502:General Surgery / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic