Clinical guidelines have become increasingly important over the past few years. They influence many things in the medical industry such as rules of operations in clinics and hospitals, health insurance, spending by the Government to promote health, and every day basic clinical decisions. Clinical guidelines are important because they help health practitioners make appropriate decisions in different clinical circumstances. They give instructions on things such as how long a patient should stay in the hospital, which tests to order, and in which order, as well as how to provide surgical or basic medical services to patients. There has been increased interest in clinical guidelines because of issues such as increased demand for healthcare, an increase in the aging population, increased cost of health technologies, and increased cost of healthcare in general. Clinical guidelines seek to bridge the gap among healthcare providers and patients in different geographic locations by giving precise instructions on how to carry out things. It is assumed that there are variations in healthcare services in different areas because of inappropriate care, and either the overuse or underuse of services. Clinical guidelines seek to bridge the gap between actions undertaken by healthcare providers and what is supported by scientific research. Developers of clinical guidelines say that there could be potential harm from the guidelines, and this is why they chose to go for rigorously tested evidence based clinical guidelines. There are a lot of benefits to clinical guidelines, and we will be looking at some of them in this article.
Clinical guidelines benefit patients in many ways. The most important benefit is that they improve health outcomes. Clinical guidelines encourage the use of new interventions to improve the quality of life and the disuse of ineffective ones. Clinical guidelines also benefit patients in that they improve the consistency of care. Research shows that patients suffering from the same illnesses, in different areas and other different clinicians receive different care. This is because different doctors have different ways of going about things. However, this variation is eliminated by evidence based clinical guidelines because they give clinicians instructions to follow in different circumstances. With clinical guidelines, people suffering from the same diseases are cared for in the same way. They also enable patients to make informed decisions since they lay out the benefits and harms of different types of procedures. Since these guidelines are available for the general public, one does not have to wait for their doctor to explain the benefits and risks of different procedures.
Clinical guidelines are also beneficial to healthcare providers. They improve the quality of the decisions made by practitioners. Clinical guidelines ensure that there is consistency in the care provided. They also show doctors how to proceed in circumstances they are unfamiliar with and allow those who are accustomed to outdated practices learn about current trends in the medical field. Clinical guidelines are also important in that they provide medicolegal protection to clinicians. They also benefit doctors by enabling them to reinforce their positions when dealing with hospital administrators who disagree with their practices, as long as the practices are suggested in the clinical guideline manual.
