Clinical Pathways Programs in Children's Hospitals

Clinical pathways translate best evidence into the local context of a care setting through structured, multidisciplinary care plans. Little is known about clinical pathway programs in pediatric settings. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of clinical pathway programs and describe similarities and differences.

We performed a cross-sectional web survey to assess the existence of a clinical pathway program, number, type, and creation or revision of clinical pathways, and its characteristics in the 111 hospitals of the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings network.

Eighty-one hospitals responded to the survey (73% response rate). Most hospitals had a clinical pathway program (63%, n = 50 of 80) that was hospital-wide (70%, n = 35 of 50). Freestanding children's (48%, n = 39 of 81), academic (60%, n = 43 of 72), teaching hospitals (96%, n = 78 of 81) made up the largest proportion of survey respondents. There was no funding for nearly half of the programs (n = 21 of 46, 46%). Over a quarter of survey respondents reported no data collected to assess pathway utilization and/or care outcomes (n = 19 of 71, 27%).

Greater than half of respondents confirmed existence of a program. Freestanding, academic teaching hospitals accounted for the most responses. However, nearly half of surveyed programs were unfunded, and many are unable to measure their pathway outcomes or demonstrate improvement in care. Survey respondents were enthusiastic about participating in a national collaborative on pediatric clinical pathways.