An integrative approach to improving patient care pathways

Purpose Globally, healthcare managers continue to struggle with increasing demands for their services being delivered with limited or shrinking resources. It is, therefore, clear that systems, processes and practices need to change to meet these challenges. The purpose of this paper is to assess how...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of health care quality assurance 2018-08, Vol.31 (7), p.810-821
Main Authors: Williams, Sharon, Radnor, Zoe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clinical decision making
Cost control
Critical Pathways - standards
Decision making
Health administration
Health care
Health care delivery
Humans
Integrated approach
Integrated care
Integrative approach
Managers
Patient Care
Patients
Principles
Quality
Quality improvement
Quality Improvement - organization & administration
Quality of care
Six Sigma
Theory
Total Quality Management - methods
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Summary:Purpose Globally, healthcare managers continue to struggle with increasing demands for their services being delivered with limited or shrinking resources. It is, therefore, clear that systems, processes and practices need to change to meet these challenges. The purpose of this paper is to assess how integrating two improvement technologies, Lean and integrated care pathways (ICP) might help. Design/methodology/approach Lean and ICP in healthcare provide a platform to develop conceptual frameworks for integrating two approaches. Findings A conceptual integrated framework is provided to assist care pathway designers and implementers to consider the synergistic benefits of combining approaches to improvement. Research limitations/implications The authors provide a conceptual framework that requires empirically testing. Practical implications This research provides a conceptual framework to aid practitioners to improve healthcare design and delivery. Originality/value For the first time, the authors bring together two approaches to improving patient care pathway design and consider how these are linked in relation to improving healthcare delivery.
ISSN:0952-6862
1758-6542
DOI:10.1108/IJHCQA-07-2017-0132