Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul 1;25(7):901-906.
doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocy010.

Clinical pathways for primary care: current use, interest and perceived usability

Jennifer M Toy  1 , Adam Drechsler  2 , Richard C Waters  3
Affiliations

Clinical pathways for primary care: current use, interest and perceived usability

Jennifer M Toy et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: Translating clinical evidence to daily practice remains a challenge and may improve with clinical pathways. We assessed interest in and usability of clinical pathways by primary care professionals.

Methods: An online survey was created. Interest in pathways for patient care and learning was assessed at start and finish. Participants completed baseline questions then pathway-associated question sets related to management of 2 chronic diseases. Perceived pathway usability was assessed using the system usability scale. Accuracy and confidence of answers was compared for baseline and pathway-assisted questions.

Results: Of 115 participants, 17.4% had used clinical pathways, the lowest of decision support tool types surveyed. Accuracy and confidence in answers significantly improved for all pathways. Interest in using pathways daily or weekly was above 75% for the respondents.

Conclusion: There is low utilization of, but high interest in, clinical pathways by primary care clinicians. Pathways improve accuracy and confidence in answering written clinical questions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Survey study design. Abbreviations: MD: medical doctor; DO: doctor of osteopathy; ARNP: advance registered nurse practitioner; PA: physician assistant; CP: clinical pathway; *R: randomization point.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Chronic gout flow-chart design pathway. Abbreviations: HTN: hypertension; ASCVD: atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; CKD: chronic kidney disease; ESRD: end-stage renal disease; eGFR: estimated glomerular filtration rate; NSAID: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Chronic gout segmented design pathway. Abbreviations: HTN: hypertension; ASCVD: atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; CKD: chronic kidney disease; ESRD: end-stage renal disease; eGFR: estimated glomerular filtration rate; NSAID: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Fisher ES, Bynum JP, Skinner JS. Slowing the growth of health care costs–lessons from regional variation. N Engl J Med 2009; 3609:849–852. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Korn L, Corrigan J, Donaldson M. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington: Institute of Medicine; 1999.
    1. Woolf SH. The meaning of translational research and why it matters. JAMA 2008; 2992:211–213. - PubMed
    1. Lawal AK, Rotter T, Kinsman L et al. . What is a clinical pathway? Refinement of an operational definition to identify clinical pathway studies for a Cochrane systematic review. BMC Med 2016; 14:35. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rotter T, Kinsman L, James E et al. . Clinical pathways: effects on professional practice, patient outcomes, length of stay and hospital costs. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2010; 3:CD006632. - PubMed