Extending the application of critical path methods

Most health care organizations are using critical pathways in an attempt to reduce the variation in patient care, improve quality, enhance communication, and reduce costs. Virtually all of the critical path efforts to date have developed tables of treatments, medications, and so forth by day and have displayed them in a format known as a Gantt chart. This article presents a methodology for identifying the true "time-limiting" critical path, describes three additional methods for presenting the information--the network, precedent, and resource formats--and shows how these can significantly enhance current critical path efforts.