The second step consists of applying the clinical standards developed in the pilot to inform policy decisions in a particular setting:
• Clinical standards can be used as one consideration when making allocative decisions among investments in primary prevention, detection and treatment in outpatient settings, inpatient care, rehabilitation care and long-term care. This will help ensure increased investment is targeted where it is most needed across the continuum of care; for example, it could help inform decisions at to the type of equipment necessary at different levels, with more specialized diagnostic or therapeutic equipment made available taking into account accessibility issues.
• Clinical standards can form the basis for developing quality indicators in pay-for-performance schemes in inpatient and outpatient (primary care and polyclinic) settings.