Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG)
CPG’s are "systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances" (Field and Lohr, 2000).
Specific Care Questions
Specific Care Questions communicate the care of a specific patient diagnosis or procedure to health care providers. Specific Care Questions are informational only.
These guidelines do not establish a standard of care to be followed in every case. It is recognized that each case is different and those individuals involved in providing health care are expected to use their judgment in determining what is in the best interests of the patient based on the circumstances existing at the time.
It is impossible to anticipate all possible situations that may exist and to prepare guidelines for each. Accordingly these guidelines should guide care with the understanding that departures from them may be required at times.