Critical pathways in cardiology

Synopsis

Critical pathways addresses the need for delivering cost-effective medical care while maintaining the quality of patient care. The book begins with an overview of how to implement the critical pathways of cardiology, their goals, rationale, and shortcomings. Most of the text is devoted to practical information including numerous tables, checklists, algorithms, and examples of pathways, helping to make this volume quick and easy to use for cardiologists, internists, and other healthcare professionals involved in cardiac patient care. Clinical trials and successful critical pathways already in use at institutions around the country are also discussed to provide the evidence-based reasoning for the pathways and suggest ways of applying the system to emergency department, inpatient and outpatient care.