A health care guideline identifies best practice for preventing or treating a health condition. It is intended to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and consistency of patient care. ICSI emphasizes collaboration, consensus, continual improvement and active integration with the care process by encouraging "living guidelines" that are continually improved on the basis of documented experience.
Development Process
- The process begins with ICSI's Guideline Oversight Group (GOG). GOG targets specific health conditions for improvement after evaluating which health conditions are most common in a population, the potential impact guidelines could have on those conditions, and the feasibility of developing and implementing guidelines.
- For each condition, a cross-disciplinary team of experts, including a lead physician, facilitator, purchaser representative, and other health care providers, drafts a guideline based on studies and evidence of the various treatment approaches for that condition.
- Health care providers in ICSI's participating organizations review the guideline draft. The guideline work group examines the resulting input, revising the original guideline as appropriate.
- Several ICSI participating medical groups pilot test the guideline at select sites. The work group considers the experiences from these sites, revising the guideline as necessary before GOG approves it for general implementation.
- The guideline work group convenes annually to reevaluate all aspects of the guideline. It surveys scientific literature and reviews information and suggestions provided by the medical groups. The group revises the guideline to incorporate the improvements needed to ensure the best possible quality of care.