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(Stroke. 2005;36:1348.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cochrane Corner

In-Hospital Care Pathways for, Stroke

An Updated Systematic Review

From the Elderly Care Research Unit (J.K.), University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK; and the Department of Clinical Neurosciences (P.S.), University of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.

Correspondence to Dr Joseph Kwan, Elderly Care Research Unit, Level E (MP 807), Southampton General Hospital, Tremona Road, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK. E-mail jk@1to1.org

Section Editor: Graeme J. Hankey MD, FRCP

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Care pathways are structured care plans that are used by the different members of the multidisciplinary team and are usually implemented to manage more than one aspect of patient care (eg, diagnosis, investigation, acute stroke treatment). When used within a case management framework, care pathways can assist health care professionals with clinical decision-making, and they aim to promote organized and efficient patient care that is based on the best-available research evidence and clinical guidelines.^1,2 A care pathway can take the form of a printed or electronic document, and it often replaces the patient’s case record for the duration of the hospital stay. Many hospitals have adopted this tool, often as one of the components of a continuous quality improvement scheme, with an aim to improve the quality of stroke care, reduce variation of standards, minimize resource utilization, and educate health care staff.^3,4 But is there sufficient evidence to support the use of care pathways for the management of stroke patients?

The first Cochrane review of in-hospital care pathways for stroke found some evidence that care pathways may increase the use of certain investigations and reduce the likelihood of urinary tract infections and readmission to hospital.⁵ However, this benefit might be at the expense of a lower quality of life scores and patient satisfaction. The original Cochrane review has recently been updated with the inclusion of several more recent clinical studies. This article summarizes the findings of the updated Cochrane review.⁶

	Materials and Methods

 
We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (last searched . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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