Clinical care pathways: Decreasing resource utilization in head and neck surgical patients

In this era of decreasing reimbursement, health systems have been forced to become more efficient and decrease resource utilization to remain financia lly viable. One of the methods of internal cost control has been the use of clinical pathways. Given the complexity of treatment of head and neck canc er patients, clinical pathways can help to standardize decision making and introduce uniformity in resource utilization. The objective of this study i s to compare resource utilization and outcomes before and after implementat ion of a clinical pathway for head and neck surgical patients. We observed significant decreases in hospital costs as well as shorter lengths of stay after pathway implementation. It is our belief that a uniform management to ol is beneficial in this complex disease.