Clinical guidelines: a defense in medical malpractice suits.

Clinical pathways, or practice guidelines, have been gaining wider acceptance from physicians and hospitals seeking to constrain increasing operating costs for inpatient care. The authors believe that properly developed and agreed upon guidelines can also be used in certain cases as appropriate standards of care in determining if medical malpractice has occurred. Adherence to the guidelines could then be asserted by defendants as an affirmative defense in a medical malpractice suit.