Coordinated care for the SCI patient.

The delivery of quality patient care in a timely, cost-effective manner is of utmost importance in health care settings. In an attempt to promote continuity and coordination of care, appropriate utilization of resources, and increased patient and health care provider satisfaction, a coordinated care system of patient care delivery was implemented for the spinal cord injured patient. Coordinated care is a multi-disciplinary approach that focuses on achieving patient outcomes within effective time frames which have been established by all members of the health care team involved in the treatment of the SCI patient. Integral to the concept of coordinated care is the utilization of a critical path and variance tracking and analysis. A critical path is a multidisciplinary plan which identifies the time frame in which key events and patient outcomes should occur during an episode of care in order to achieve an optimal use of resources and length of stay. Variance tracking is the comparison of the actual care delivered with the expected plan and the identification of reasons why the care differed.