for Evaluation of Medicines,

© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors Background: Oxygen is commonly administered to patients in hospital, but pre-scribing and monitoring of such therapy may be suboptimal. The objective of this study was to develop, disseminate, implement and evaluate a multidiscipli-nary clinical pathway for the administration of oxygen. Methods: The authors developed a clinical pathway for the ordering, titration and discontinuation of oxygen, which was disseminated through teaching sessions, in-service training sessions and information posters in a medical clinical teach-ing unit (CTU). Implementation of the pathway was ensured by means of re-minders and patient-centred audit and feedback to CTU nurses and house staff. During a 3-month intervention phase, consecutive patients requiring supple-mental oxygen were treated according to the pathway. During a 1-month “wash-out ” phase followed by a 3-month non-intervention phase, patients were treated at the discretion of the CTU team. Clinical and economic data were col