Don’t Put A Wooden Wheel On Your Hummer

When people are talking about pathways, about innovations and upgrades, they often say “don’t reinvent the wheel”. Should we move from asking the question “Why reinvent the wheel?” to “Do we need to update this wheel?”  Would you put a wooden wheel on a Hummer? So even if you don’t want to reinvent the wheel, shouldn’t we sometimes think about an upgrade, or a major overhaul?

One thing I am sure of is that we don’t want to use old wheels on new vehicles – they just aren’t up to the challenge. I’m no more sure that some of the pathway processes and formats still in use are any more apt to be successful supporters of care than that wooden wheel can manage on our modern vehicles.

The Brondesbury Group continues to update our Pathway Appraisal Tool. The current version helps you examine how the pathway meets standards for development and use, as well as linkages to operational and strategic focus.  Please contact us for more information. Judith.weinstein@brondesbury.com.

Some of the core ideas about pathways are probably still robust (see our Archives). However, just as we try to make sure that the  clinical practices within pathways are based on Best Practices, we should be examining our pathways and related tools to understand what a best practice is with a care management tool. 

So, let’s keep working on our vehicle maintenance, and let’s keep upgrading our wheels.