What is the purpose of the Care Guidelines^®?

Essentially, the Care Guidelines^® were developed as a tool to chronicle and document the effective, efficient delivery of care, i.e., delivery that achieves desired patient care outcomes using an optimal level of resources. The goal of the Care Guidelines^® is to provide patients with the best care possible, by assisting providers in identifying quality care practices in use today — practices that effectively marshal treatment resources, while helping to minimize waste and inefficiency.

Since the early 1980s, our industry has been caught between rising demand on one side of the healthcare equation, and rising costs on the other. Medical research has shown that one way to cut spiraling costs is to reduce wasteful and unnecessary practices. It has been amply demonstrated that there is tremendous variation in healthcare practices throughout the United States. The existence of marked variation—such as differing lengths of hospital stay for the same condition in different regions of the country—is a strong indication that there is sizable potential for improving both the quality and efficiency of care.