Best Practice Collaborative

Advancing Pediatric Clinical Pathways Through Collaboration

The Pathways4Kids Best Practice Collaborative brings together multidisciplinary leaders from children’s hospitals across North America to identify shared challenges, develop evidence informed resources, and advance best practices for pediatric clinical pathways. Through collaborative projects, our members are working to improve measurement, build consensus, and support more consistent, high quality care for children.

Current Collaborative Projects

Respiratory Standard Measures

Project Leads

• Kelsey Zindel, DNP, APRN-NP
• Leigh Anne Bakel, MD, MSc

Objective
Develop a standardized set of quality measures for pediatric respiratory pathways that can support quality improvement and future benchmarking across institutions.

Current Work

• Identifying core measures
• Standardizing measure definitions

Febrile Infant Standard Measures

Project Leads

• Courtney Titus, MPAS, PA C
• Leigh Anne Bakel, MD, MSc
• Kelsey Zindel, DNP, APRN-NP

Objective
Develop standardized quality measures for pediatric febrile infant pathways to improve consistency in measurement and facilitate collaborative learning.

Current Work

• Identifying core measures
• Developing measure specifications
• Benchmarking across participating organizations

Delphi Consensus Study

Project Leads

• Ilana Waynik, MD
• Leigh Anne Bakel, MD, MSc

Objective
Use a structured Delphi methodology to develop national expert consensus on pediatric clinical pathway program best practices.

Related Publications

The work of the Best Practice Collaborative builds upon previously published research that explored the current landscape of pediatric clinical pathway programs and highlighted the need for greater collaboration across institutions.

Clinical Pathways Programs in Children’s Hospitals
Leigh Anne Bakel, Ilana Y. Waynik, Amy J. Starmer, Adam K. Berkwitt, Sonja I. Ziniel. Pediatrics. 2024.

Authored by our Chair, Leigh Anne Bakel, MD, MSc, and Vice Chair, Ilana Waynik, MD, this national study examined pediatric clinical pathway programs across children’s hospitals. The findings highlighted shared challenges, opportunities for standardized measurement, and strong interest in cross institutional collaboration, helping establish the vision for Pathways4Kids.

Read the publication on PubMed

Looking Ahead

As Pathways4Kids continues to grow, additional collaborative projects will be launched to address emerging priorities in pediatric clinical pathways, implementation science, benchmarking, and quality improvement.