Integrated Clinical Pathways: Communication and Participation in a Multidisciplinary Team

Abstract

BACKGROUND: An integrated clinical pathway (ICP) is a key method for structuring or planning processes of care, enabling the modernization of health-care delivery and coordination of multiple roles, forming a complete, patient-centered multidisciplinary health-care team and establishing the sequence of activities, promoting individual and team communication, collaboration, networking, and transparency, and reducing the cost of care. AIM: As there is a research gap in the area of communication among members of a multidisciplinary team for the treatment of patients through an ICP, the aim of this study was to determine the impact of communication of a member of a multidisciplinary team on the active participation of an individual in this multidisciplinary team. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of three ICPs, forchronic kidney disease, stroke, and total hip arthroplasty was conducted in a typical Slovenian general hospital. RESULTS: The results show that in the analyzed hospital, two of the three clinical pathways are not yet fully integrated. CONCLUSION: There is a weak influence of staff communication within a multidisciplinary team on an individual’s participation in this multidisciplinary team, indicating the need for various activities to actually implement clinical pathway “integration,” and promote better communication within teams to strengthen participation in multidisciplinary patient care pathways.