Normative treatment guidelines in home care. Building the case.

Disease management (DM) programs using standard care protocols in prevention, treatment, and follow-up have become common in health systems, especially in managed care organizations and hospitals. To effectively market programs and maximize resources under a prospective payment system, home healthcare agencies need to look closely at standardizing treatment practices. Normative treatment guidelines can provide the mechanism to link patient outcomes to the care provided and improve quality without increasing costs. This paper provides a discussion about the issues, methods, and processes to test treatment guidelines in home healthcare and to improve existing guidelines through evidence-based research.