Critical Pathway Development Guide

From The Critics

Reviewer: Janet Welch, RN, DNS(Indiana University School of Nursing)
Description: This book provides one approach for developmental pathways.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide the reader with ideas on how to identify patient groups for critical pathways that consider clinical, administrative, or infrastructure criteria. In addition, the book provides general guidelines for the development of a critical pathway. It does not purport to discuss the actual implementation of a critical pathway, how to analyze or evaluate data from an implemented pathway, or how results could be used. It does an adequate job of identifying why critical pathways may be needed.
Audience: The intended audience is persons involved in the development of critical pathways. These could include healthcare administrators, quality improvement personnel, clinical nurse specialists, medical staff, or case managers.
Features: The content is easy to read. Illustrations and tables are of good quality and adequate number. A brief reference list is included. None of the cited references include research-based articles presenting outcomes resulting from critical pathways. The overall appearance is satisfactory.
Assessment: It would be useful to persons beginning to develop critical pathways. The reader would require, however, additional resources for the implementation and evaluation of the pathway, pathway data analysis, and utilization of results. The book briefly discusses how to analyze data from current practices using various statistical techniques. Unfortunately, this discussion does not provide enough information to be useful to the reader.

Janet Welch

This book provides one approach for developmental pathways. The purpose is to provide the reader with ideas on how to identify patient groups for critical pathways that consider clinical, administrative, or infrastructure criteria. In addition, the book provides general guidelines for the development of a critical pathway. It does not purport to discuss the actual implementation of a critical pathway, how to analyze or evaluate data from an implemented pathway, or how results could be used. It does an adequate job of identifying why critical pathways may be needed. The intended audience is persons involved in the development of critical pathways. These could include healthcare administrators, quality improvement personnel, clinical nurse specialists, medical staff, or case managers. The content is easy to read. Illustrations and tables are of good quality and adequate number. A brief reference list is included. None of the cited references include research-based articles presenting outcomes resulting from critical pathways. The overall appearance is satisfactory. It would be useful to persons beginning to develop critical pathways. The reader would require, however, additional resources for the implementation and evaluation of the pathway, pathway data analysis, and utilization of results. The book briefly discusses how to analyze data from current practices using various statistical techniques. Unfortunately, this discussion does not provide enough information to be useful to the reader.

Booknews

Gaining popularity in the health care industry as a tool for improving patient outcomes while reducing costs, critical pathways aim to integrate continuous quality improvement efforts with traditional patient care. Through exercises and pragmatic analysis, Eugene, Oregon experts Wall and Proyect introduce pathway movement terms, principles, improvement processes, data requirements, and strategies for overcoming organizational resistance. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

2 Stars from Doody