Collaborative Care Pathways – Patient Management Tool

Clinical Pathways, also referred as Integrated Care Pathways, Pathways of Care, Collaborative Care Pathways, are structured, multidisciplinary plans of care designed to support the implementation of clinical guidelines and protocols. Introduced in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom and USA, they provide detailed guidance for the management of a patient’s condition (e.g., treatments, interventions) and include progress and outcomes details. They have four main components including a timeline, the categories of care or activities and their interventions, intermediate and long term outcome criteria, and the variance record.

Clinical Pathways were tested in a variety of Italian health care organizations in 2000-2002 to measure performance in decreasing process and outcome variations. Reductions in length of stay and diagnostic and therapeutic prescriptions were demonstrated where pathways were implemented successfully.

Then European Pathway Association performed an international survey in 23 countries utilizing Clinical Pathways. They found that they ‘improved the quality of Evidence Based Care and improved communication between professionals to manage and standardize outcome oriented care.’

Based on these results, Kissito Post Acute’s interdisciplinary team developed Collaborative Care Pathways as a proprietary patient management tool. They outline the process, timeline, and benchmarks for meeting the needs of a patient as they transition to home.  The Pathways were based on research, Best Practices and Evidence Based Medicine. They help Kissito achieve its goal – returning the patient home quickly, safely, and effectively.

The Pathway serves as a tool to guide the direction of care. It is a visual indicator that depicts the pathway to home, define the care plan and helps to keep all members of the Total Care Medical Team on the same page. It is like a flow chart of the decisions to be made and the care to be provided for a patient for a given condition in a step-by-step sequence.

The benefits of Collaborative Care Pathways include:

• Improve multidisciplinary communication, teamwork and care planning
• Support continuity of care across different clinical disciplines
• Provide well-defined standards for care (reduce variations in patient care)
• Improve clinical outcomes
• Ensure quality of care and provide a means of continuous quality improvement
• Empower patients
• Reduce risk
• Reduce costs by shortening acute hospital and post acute stays