Health Policy and Clinical Effectiveness Glossary
The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Health Policy and Clinical Effectiveness Division provides a wealth of information about evidence-based methods of improving the delivery of health care. To assist in understanding this information, a glossary of terms is below:
- Clinical Algorithm
- A written guide to stepwise evaluation and management strategies that require observations to be made, decisions to be considered (decision tree), and actions to be taken. It is depicted as a flow chart.
- Clinical Pathway
- A comprehensive plan of care that outlines the expected sequencing and timing of interventions for patients with similar problems to achieve specific outcomes. It may be evidence based or consensus based. It is utilized when a patient's course is fairly predictable.
- Clinical Protocol
- Standardizes a "sequence of tasks" for a particular disease or patient problem and recognized as a method of reducing variation of care. It may or may not be evidenced based or utilize national standards. It is often used to codify a standing order for a defined population. Variation from the protocol may be appropriate according to the individual needs of the patient.
- Order Set
- A grouping of patient orders for a specific diagnosis or condition. It promotes standardized care processes. At times an order may include the utilization of a particular protocol (i.e., Weaning protocol) or to start a particular Clinical Pathway (see definition below).
- Pediatric Evidence-Based Care Guideline
- A document that describes clinical practice recommendations for a specific disease process / condition. The Institute of Medicine says these guidelines are "… intended to point the way to higher quality and more-effective care by making readily accessible the clinical knowledge distilled from outcomes research." (1990). To the extent that evidence exists, the recommendations are evidenced-based, yet some will be consensus-based.
For more information about the Health Policy and Clinical Effectiveness program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, please call 513-636-2501.
