Clinical pathways: An emerging tool for quality improvement.

222 Background: Clinical pathways have emerged as a tool for payers to encourage provider adherence to evidence-based care. Avalere sought to understand how oncology pathways are incorporated into broader organizational quality improvement initiatives and what impact they have on care quality.

METHODS: Avalere conducted white and grey literature searches to assess pathways used in quality improvement initiatives. The research was augmented by interviews with leading pathways organizations.

RESULTS: Research suggests that pathways can play the following roles in quality improvement: Ensure Adherence to Guidelines. Pathways are typically built on guidelines. Guideline adherence thresholds improve care quality by incentivizing appropriate care. While pathway adherence thresholds are typically set at 80%, little research has been conducted on whether adherence thresholds have improved guideline adherence. Ensure Adherence to Quality Measures. Quality metrics can be tied to pathway adherence, which in turn can also incentivize appropriate care. Quality measures tied to pathways can be used as a risk-mitigation and management tool for providers that assume more risk. Improve Patient Outcomes by Reducing Treatment Variability. Some clinical pathways programs have been shown to improve outcomes. Between 2010-2012, after implementing breast, colon and lung cancer pathways, US Oncology and Aetna experienced 1.2 inpatient days for patients vs. 2.1 prior to launch, as well as a 10% ER visits in the pathways group vs. 14% in the control group. Enable Comparative Outcomes Assessment. CPs could allow for benchmarking of outcomes over time. Treatment choices could be tracked through pathways and the outcomes could potentially be matched to those choices.

CONCLUSIONS: While pathways have been shown to play a role in quality improvement, initial results have been short-term and isolated. To ensure that pathways can be a viable part of organizational quality improvement, additional research must be conducted on the impact of pathways on outcomes. Additionally, given the lack of pathway transparency and consistency there is a need for increased oversight to ensure that pathways are appropriately incentivizing adherence to guidelines and quality measures.