KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT OF HEALTHCARE BY CLINICAL-PATHWAYS

Healthcare is a knowledge-intensive service provided by professionals, such as medical doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Clinical pathways are used by many healthcare organizations (HCOs) as a tool for performing the healthcare process, sharing and utilizing knowledge from different professionals. In this paper, case studies were performed at two HCOs that use clinical pathways actively in the healthcare process. Theoretical model construction, sharing, utilization, and creation of the knowledge by different professionals, were tested by the case study of two HCOs which use clinical pathways actively. The theoretical model was a knowledge creation model which creates new knowledge continuously. In this theoretical model, clinical pathways are suggested to be an effective tool for knowledge management in healthcare.