Implementing care protocols, also known as care pathways, is foundational to improving clinical quality. Good protocolsreflect evidence-based guidelines for care delivery, standardizing elements of care to ensure consistentoutcomes. They also support staff in delivering excellent specialty care.

Continue reading to learn the one critical mistake many organizations make when designing and implementing protocols—and how you can avoid it.

Many organizations make one critical mistake when designing and implementing protocols: they fail toobtain staff buy-in. Seeking staff input not only improves staff use of and compliance with the protocols, butalso can improve the protocols themselves, based on staff members’ extensive on-the-ground knowledge.

Case study: Fill downstream service gaps to reach new patients

Leaders at Sheltering Arms, an IRF in central Virginia, listened to therapist feedback that their protocols focused too much ondiagnosis. The leaders revised the protocols to target physical impairments common across their patientpopulation instead, building the iWalk and iReach clinical programs specializing in patients with gait andupper limb mobility, respectively. Together, the protocols and associated programs have achieved strongfunctional gains and driven physician referrals to Sheltering Arms.

As referrers become increasingly accountable for care delivered beyond their setting, they areidentifying post-acute partners who can influence downstream care results.

Comprehensive, cross-setting care is the motivation behind Sheltering Arms’ future evolution of theiWalk and iReach programs. While the protocols are currently used in the inpatient andoutpatient rehab services at Sheltering Arms, leaders plan to implement the protocols in the acute care setting bypartnering with their referral sources to establish a single, cohesive cross-continuum care plan forpatients with gait and upper limb mobility impairments.

Infographic: How to secure hospital partnerships

The ultimate goal is to use the protocols consistently across a patient’s full episode so that ShelteringArms can capture reliable data on patients’ assessment at admission and functional outcomes atdischarge. This comprehensive data set will enable Sheltering Arms to predict a patient’s likely lengthof stay, cost of care, and functional outcome at the point of acute care admission.