Integrated patient pathways: “mipp” – a tool for quality improvement and cost management in health care. Pilot study on the pathway “Acute Myocardial Infarction”

Abstract

This article describes the fundamentals of the “model of integrated patient pathways” (“mipp”) and its mode of action as a tool for quality improvement and cost management in health care. The model is based on three pillars: construction, implementation and benchmarking. Transparency of processes and costs become available from interdisciplinary construction of care pathways via an Access database. The article provides details and lessons learned from applying the model to the pathway “Acute Myocardial Infarction”. A robust approach for delivering quality in a cost‐conscious world is uncovered, which lends itself to benchmarking and has limitless scope for quality improvements.