Abstract
There is a lack of condition-specific evidence-based guidelines in the home care field. A recent article by Peterson (2004) suggests that the home care industry must now address this on several fronts, including: 1. adopting guidelines for specific conditions from other settings, 2. implementing selected "best practices" developed by within home care agencies (that are usually consensus-based), and 3. collecting outcomes data with the purpose of creating a home care specific evidence base.
This column summarizes Peterson's (2004) recent work on the importance of creating an evidence base for the home care field.