Developing And Implementing Critical Paths In Rehabilitation

This text is part of a five book series showing how to develop standard protocols for rehabilitation planning treatment with clients of 16 years and older. It presents sets of procedures based on sequentially organized treatment activities completed within an established time frame.

This text is part of a five book series showing how to develop standard protocols for rehabilitation planning treatment with clients of 16 years and older. It presents sets of procedures based on sequentially organized treatment activities completed within an established time frame.

This text is part of a five book series showing how to develop standard protocols for rehabilitation planning treatment with clients of 16 years and older. It presents sets of procedures based on sequentially organized treatment activities completed within an established time frame.

A clear and practical guide to designing critical pathways for a multitude of settings - acute care, ambulatory, home care, rehabilitation and long term care.

Designing and implementing critical pathways for the rehabilitation setting raises many problems not apparent in the acute setting. A majority of rehabilitation patients are older and present with comorbidities and complex social issues which influence their recovery. Problems arise because the patterns of care and timeframes in the acute setting do not cater adequately for these patients. Identifying desired outcomes for rehabilitation patients and designing the most appropriate pathway of care to achieve these outcomes was the problem confronting the rehabilitation teams at the Anne Caudle Campus of the Bendigo Health Care Group. An action research project involving the staff on the rehabilitation wards was conducted to address this problem. Initially two diagnostic groups, fractured neck of femur and stroke, were selected for the design of critical pathways. The critical pathways or Rehabilitation Guides focused on patient centred care, and progress was mapped through phases of care based on the changes in the patient's functional ability. The project demonstrates the implementation of critical pathways beyond the boundaries of acute hospital settings. On completion, the design of the Guides was adapted to amputee patients and a Generic Rehabilitation Guide was developed.

This instruction manual, including a pull out chart, is part of a five book series showing how to develop standard protocols for rehabilitation planning treatment with clients of 16 years and older. It presents sets of procedures based on sequentially organized treatment activities completed within an established time frame.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.