Best practices: are recommendations for practice or policy decisions that are informed by sufficient good quality evidence. They describe the most effective health care practices, interventions, and processes determined by research evidence. Best practices can take the form of clinical practice/best practice guidelines or policy guidelines.

Clinical practice guidelines and best practice guidelines: are synonymous terms. They are systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances that are informed by research evidence.

Policy guidelines: are systematically developed statements to assist health care policy maker, administrator and manager decisions about appropriate health services that are informed by research evidence.

A consensus statement offers recommendations about reasonable approaches to appropriate health care. They are produced when there is an absence of evidence or in cases where the evidence is limited, of poor quality, or equivocal and are therefore based largely on expert opinion. Consensus statements may offer recommendations to facilitate clinical or policy decisions.

A Standard is the basis of comparison in measuring or judging the capacity, quality, content, or extent of a particular object of activity. Standards specify the minimum acceptable characteristics of what constitutes quality care. In the absence of evidence, standards may be informed by expert opinion. Types of standards include, but are not limited to:

Practice standards… standards regarding the practice experiences and/or educational preparation of clinicians, and their patient care activity.

Professional practice standards… standards for clinicians established and maintained by Ontario health professions Colleges under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991

Organizational standards… statements that define the performance expectations, structures, or processes that must be substantially in place in a health care organization to enhance the quality of care (JCAHO, 2004)