Cost-effective clinical pathways at the Alfred Hospital: international lessons from Bayside Health, Australia.

The paper "Caring about carepaths" by Pearson and Macintosh (2001) is an interesting article for those considering the implementation of clinical pathways. The authors have attempted to describe the experiences and lessons learned in trying to introduce clinical pathways at Cairns Base Hospital (CBH). The paper is not a research report. Rather, it is a story of what was hoped to be achieved versus what actually was achieved. Hence, the term "experiment" was used in a non-technical sense. In our commentary of that paper below, we also outline our own experience in clinical pathways at The Alfred by way of comparison, drawing upon lessons learnt that may be of interest to other hospitals.