Quality of care and development of a critical pathway

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Abstract
Background The current study reports on the first step towards developing quality of care for stroke patients at a hospital in western Sweden. A general critical pathway from the patient's perspective was developed by a multidisciplinary group. Aim The aim was to investigate quality of care and the effectiveness of a critical pathway. Method The study should be classified as a case study. Patients (n = 22), next of kin (n = 63) and staff (n = 91) make up the research group. Data collection was carried out through questionnaires on quality of care before testing the critical pathway. Data on the critical pathway were collected during the testing period. Findings The respondents valued some aspects of care as good, but there were some deficiencies as regards patient information and the patient's participation in his/her own care. Next of kin were less positive than the patients. The analyses of the critical pathway showed that the key events need to be more specific and that the number of key events should be reduced. Conclusion By additionally developing the critical pathway, it should be possible to further improve the quality of care for stroke patients. Keywords: quality of care, critical pathway, stroke care

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