Interdisciplinary quality improvement from the perspective of a clinical pathway team.

Clinical pathway teams are one type of interdisciplinary team formed to improve the quality of care provided to select patient populations. As they aim to improve quality, these teams look at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the care provided, as well as overall performance. Some clinical pathways and teams are successful, while others are not. This article describes the activities of a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) clinical pathway team, difficulties encountered by the team, and strategies developed to overcome these difficulties.