临床路径指的是一种将医院看病诊断进程化的方法，预计在使用这种方法之后会降低医院的成本和减低就诊的开销。

将每一种疾病依序提出标准进程，意即每一种疾病都将会有一定的诊断方法和应做的检验项目，而医师该做哪些检查也都将明文规定，护理方面也将都会有一定的看护目的和进程，而通常也将附上各个阶段病人应该出现的诊疗情形与病情解释，在依据天数的分类之下，每个病人每天所做的治疗都将会是固定的。

Clinical pathways, also known as care pathways, critical pathways, integrated care pathways, or care maps, are one of the main tools used to manage the quality in healthcare concerning the standardization of care processes. It has been shown that their implementation reduces the variability in clinical practice and improves outcomes. Clinical pathways promote organized and efficient patient care based on evidence based practice. Clinical pathways optimize outcomes in the acute care and home care settings. Generally clinical pathways refer to medical guidelines. However a single pathway may refer to guidelines on several topics in a well specified context.