Success in implementing a hospital-wide evidence-based clinical pathways system for the management of cardiac patients: the ACAP program experience.

There is robust evidence to support the concept that critical pathways, derived from evidence-based guidelines, are an effective strategy for bridging the gap between published guidelines and clinical practice. It was with this idea in mind that in 2004 we developed an innovative novel program at our institution, that is, the "Advanced Cardiac Admission Program." The Advanced Cardiac Admission program consists of tools and strategies for implementing American College of Cardiology or American Heart Association guidelines into daily clinical practice. The program is composed of 8 novel critical pathways for the management of cardiac patients. In this article, we describe our experience in successfully implementing this program at our institutions.