Beyond Clinical Paths (Paper Only): Advanced Tools for Outcomes Management

Nationally renowned health care quality expert Patrice Spath and her team of contributors offer quality management professionals, nursing directors, case managers, medical directors, and other health services administrators the information they need to achieve measurable quality improvement and cost savings by moving beyond traditional clinical paths. Case studies----written by physicians, nurses, case managers, and quality management professionals from such diverse settings as FirstCare Health, Merit Behavioral Care, Clinton Memorial Home Health, and California Pacific Medical Center----give readers a behind--the--scenes look at how their organizations used a total quality managed environment and a wide variety of quality elements to develop effective initiatives. For those searching for better or new ways to manage patient outcomes, Beyond Clinical Paths is the road to success.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables. About the Editor. Contributors. Preface. Taking Clinical Quality Improvement Beyond Paths (P. Spath). CLINICAL PROCESS IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES. Using Performance Measurement as a Quality Improvement Tool (M. Anzalone & M. McGee). Improving Outpatient Care with Clinical Practice Guidelines (G. VanZyl & G. Goby). Reducing Practice Variation in Open Heart Surgeries (M. Gerke). Creating a Multidisciplinary Disease Management Initiative (L. Zavorski & B. Taptich). Integrating Geriatric Evaluation and Management with a Multidisciplinary Care Planning Process (J. Paynter, et al.). Mapping Home Care Services (S. Hawley & B. Davis). Incorporating Case Management into Home Care (D. Mosher). Reducing Length of Stay and Improving Outcomes (K. Turley & K. Turley). INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS. Selecting an Automated Case Management and Clinical Path Information System (S. Lee). Building a Cost--Efficient Path Variance Database (D. Grzybowski). Automating Clinical Pathway Variance Analysis (B. Weber, et al.). Designing Information Systems for Disease Management (D. Anderson, et al.). Linking Expert Systems to Outcomes Analysis (J. Pigott, et al.). Index.

About the Author :
PATRICE L. SPATH, a health care quality and resource management consultant with Brown--Spath & Associates, is a nationally recognized authority on quality and resource management initiatives who has used her vast experience to present more than 250 educational programs on quality improvement, utilization review, case management/clinical paths, and outcomes management. Among her many published books are Medical Effectiveness and Outcomes Management (AHPI, 1996) and Clinical Paths (AHPI, 1994). Spath is a regular columnist for Hospital Case Management and Hospital Peer Review and is coeditor of The Quality Resource, the newletter of the Quality Management Section of the American Health Information Management Association.

Review :
"A milestone book and a valuable addition to every health care institution's performance improvement arsenal. . . . Offers no 'simple' solution to those frustrated with their clinical pathway program. What this book does offer is a wealth of examples of how to use the key concepts of quality management to expand a pathway program into a true clinical process improvement system." --Robert Luttman "An important contribution. An authoritative, comprehensive overview of clinical quality improvement that is accessible to executives and practitioners alike." --Glenn Laffel "Give this book to your corporate leadership team to direct patient care providers, managers and improvement coordinators! It's a must read!" --Linda Burnes Bolton, Dr.PH, RN, FAAN "Patrice Spath is well known for her expertise in clinical paths and quality. She makes another realistic and practical contribution to both fields in Beyond Clinical Paths." --Judy Homa-Lowry, RN, MS, CPHQ "An excellent resource for the many organizations striving to develop and implement clinical tools and care delivery systems that meet the demands of the managed care market. The experiences here share essential information for using clinical pathways, case management, and integrated information systems to rapidly achieve measurable financial and clinical improvements." --Larry Strassner, MS, RN "Clinicians and administrators alike will find themselves referring again and again to the valuable insights and advice offered in these chapters." --Kathleen Ciccone