Traditionally the training of clinical professionals has stressed the need to consider each patient as an individual. However, in recent years health economists have established that in most instances patients' healthcare experiences are, or should be, largely similar. It has been argued that in some instances variance from an established outcome reflects substandard practice and the use of a pathway is a tool for the improvement of the quality of care given to patients. It should, however, be noted that variance from the pathway can also result from patient choice. Establishing a consensus as to what should constitute the pathway is a key objective in creating a pathway.
Pathways have application to both primary and secondary settings.
They are not static entities, but should be subject to ongoing review. As such pathways enable the communication of the latest research-based practice at local level. Pathways employ an in-built mechanism for the monitoring of practice against that prescribed. This is known as variance analysis. However, knowing what best practice is can often be problematic as often there are no explicit standards.