Pediatric Clinical Pathways

Seattle Children’s Hospital specializes in meeting the unique physical, emotional and developmental needs of children from infancy through young adulthood. For more than 100 years, we have been dedicated to providing top-quality care to every child in our region who needs us, regardless of the family’s ability to pay. Seattle Children’s is consistently ranked among the nation’s best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

This application directly accesses our Clinical Standard Work (CSW) Pathways. At Seattle Children’s, clinical standard work pathways are a documented standard approach that guides practitioners when providing care to specific patient populations. These clinical pathways improve the quality of care through standardization of treatment based on evidence in the published medical literature and/or expert opinion. Pathways are presented in an easy-to-read

algorithm format. Deeper levels of information are accessed through the use of hyperlinks.

When developing these pathways, committees of experts from different disciplines review the evidence to reach a consensus about treatments that result in the best outcomes for patients. The committees draw on Children’s organization-wide improvement approach – called

Continuous Performance Improvement (CPI) – to implement pathways and support change

management.

Each pathway features:

1. Step by step decision algorithms from admit to discharge

2. Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria: Defines whether a patient is appropriate for a given pathway

3. Ability to Test Knowledge: Self assessment earns Category II CME Credit

4. Explanation of Evidence Rankings: Links to complete bibliography and explanation of how evidence was ranked

5. Summary of Version Changes: Chronologic summary of version changes

6. Highlighted clinically important warnings / pitfalls of care

7. Access to rationale and expanded information via hyperlinks

8. Discharge Criteria

DISCLAIMER

Medicine is an ever-changing science. As new research and clinical experience broaden our knowledge, changes in treatment and drug therapy are required.

The authors have checked with sources believed to be reliable in their efforts to provide information that is complete and generally in accord with the standards accepted at the time of publication.

However, in view of the possibility of human error or changes in medical sciences, neither the authors nor SCHS nor any other party who has been involved in the preparation or publication of this work warrants that the information contained herein is in every respect accurate or complete, and they are not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information.

Readers should confirm the information contained herein with other sources and are encouraged to consult with their health care provider before making any health care decision.