Evaluation of the health care system has identified the need for more efficient and productive use of resources for providing quality patient outcomes. The use of critical pathways has been well described in the nursing literature. The primary goal is to combine consistency, quality, and economy in patient care to achieve a desired set of outcomes, Since a multidisciplinary approach is advocated in the development of critical pathways, the purpose of the survey reported here was to determine the use of critical pathways in Minnesota hospitals and the involvement of pharmacists in the development and evaluation of these pathways.
