Patient perceived quality-of-care in hospital in the context of clinical pathways: Development of an approach

Abstract Clinical pathways have been introduced in many hospitals with the aims of improving efficiency, reducing costs, and improving the quality and outcomes of care. However, there is a shortage of research evidence regarding the extent to which they do in fact achieve such aims. This paper describes the development and testing of a patient-perceived quality-of-care questionnaire for use in relation to the assessment of clinical pathways. Issues of validity and reliability are addressed and illustrative examples of results for two pilot hospitals are presented.