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Definition of Best Practice

A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. In addition, a "best" practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered.[1] Best practice is considered by some as a business buzzword, used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can use.

Best practices are used to maintain quality as an alternative to mandatory legislated standards and can be based on self-assessment or benchmarking. Best practice is a feature of accredited management standards such as ISO 9000 and ISO 14001.

Documenting and charting procedures and practices is a complicated and time-consuming process often skipped by companies, even though they may practise the proper processes consistently. Some consulting firms specialize in the area of Best Practice and offer pre-made 'templates' to standardize business process documentation. Sometimes a "best practice" is not applicable or is inappropriate for a particular organization's needs. A key strategic talent required when applying best practice to organizations is the ability to balance the unique qualities of an organization with the practices that it has in common with others.

Good operating practice is a strategic management term. More specific uses of the term include good agricultural practices, good manufacturing practice, good laboratory practice, good clinical practice and good distribution practice.

Critique

There are some criticism with the use of "Best" practice. Eugene Bardach, a professor of Public Policy at the Goldman[School of Public Policy] claims the work necessary to deem and practice the best is rarely done, and most of the time, you will find "good" practices or "smart" practices that offer insight into solutions that may or may not work for your situation.

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center)

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) develops innovative solutions to today's most pressing public policy challenges and is the only research and development firm that directly serves United State's governors.

Redesigning State Government 2011

Since 2008, the NGA Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) has been reviewing state government redesign effort as states recover from the economic downturn. Some of these efforts have been described in other NGA publications, namely, The Big Reset: State Government After the Great Recession (February 2010) and again in State Government Redesign Efforts 2009 and 2010 (October 2010). Their publication released in early 2011 covers the areas of: Health, Corrections, K-12 Education,Higher Education,Transportation and Infrastructure,State Workforce,Pensions and Benefits, Downsizing and Streamlining,and Revenue Management and Collection

Use of Best Practices in Health and Human Services

In recent years, public agencies and NGOs have been exploring and adopting best practices when delivering health and human services. In these settings, the use of the terms “promising practices”, “best practices” and “evidence-based practices” is common and often confusing as there is not a general consensus on what constitutes promising practices or best practices. In this context, the use of the terms “best practices” and “evidence-based practices are often used interchangeably. Evidence-based practices are methods or techniques that have documented outcomes and ability to replicate as key factors. (link to wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_practice).

Despite these challenges, literature suggests that there is some common use of and criteria for identifying best practices. For example, a general working definition used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in referring to a promising practice is defined as one with at least preliminary evidence of effectiveness in small-scale interventions or for which there is potential for generating data that will be useful for making decisions about taking the intervention to scale and generalizing the results to diverse populations and settings.

Since evidence of effectiveness, potential for taking the intervention to scale and generalizing the results to other populations and settings are key factors for best practices, the manner in which a method or intervention becomes a best practice can take some time and effort. The table below demonstrates the process for a promising practice to achieve the status of research validated best practice.

Research Validated Best Practice	A program, activity or strategy that has the highest degree of proven effectiveness supported by objective and comprehensive research and evaluation.
Field Tested Best Practice	A program, activity or strategy that has been shown to work effectively and produce successful outcomes and is supported to some degree by subjective and objective data sources.
Promising Practice	A program, activity or strategy that has worked within one organization and shows promise during its early stages for becoming a best practice with long term sustainable impact. A promising practice must have some objective basis for claiming effectiveness and must have the potential for replication among other organizations.

The National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) (External Link: http://nrepp.samhsa.gov) is a searchable online registry of interventions supporting substance abuse prevention and mental health treatment that have been reviewed and rated by independent reviewers. NREPP accepts submissions for interventions that meet minimum requirements to be considered for review. Minimum requirements include (1) demonstration of one or more positive outcomes among individuals, communities, or populations; (2) evidence of these outcomes has been demonstrated in at least one study using an experimental or quasi-experimental design; (3) the results of these studies have been published in a peer-reviewed journal or other professional publication, or documented in a comprehensive evaluation report; and (4) implementation materials, training and support resources, and quality assurance procedures have been developed and are ready for use by the public. NREPP is not an exhaustive list of interventions and inclusion in the registry does not constitute an endorsement.

There is existing controversy about the lack of culturally appropriate evidence-based best practices and the need to utilize a research-based approach to validate interventions. Some communities have deployed practices over a long period of time that has produced positive outcomes as well as a general community consensus to be successful. The California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) is working to identify such practices. (External Link: http://www.dmh.ca.gov/Multicultural_Services/CRDP.asp) CRDP intends to improve access, quality of care, and increase positive outcomes for racial, ethnic and cultural communities. These communities have been identified as (1) African American, (2) Asian/Pacific Islanders, (3) Latinos, (4) Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Questioning, and (5) Native Americans. Strategic Planning Workgroups comprised of mental health providers, community members as well as consumers and family members are given the task of identifying new approaches toward reducing disparities. The five Strategic Planning Workgroups work to identify new service delivery approaches defined by multicultural communities for multicultural communities using community-defined evidence to improve outcomes and reduce disparities. Community- defined evidence is defined as “a set of practices that communities have used and determined to yield positive results as determined by community consensus over time and which may or may not have been measured empirically but have reached a level of acceptance by the community.”

Best Practice in Action

Clean Air Financing Programs

Financing Clean Air Programs, and example taken from NGA

This is a quick guide put together by the NGA Center for Best Practices. It explores what clean air programs currently exist and how they are being financed. Rather than stating one best practice to tackling clean air, this reports creates a table of the different programs, how they are being financed, and in what state. Governors and their staffs can then look for characteristics and solutions that are most realistic and applicable to their situation. The key is to tailor current practices that are in the world to the specific situation you are looking to solve. Best practices are meant to give insight into existing strategies.

Environmental best management practice

The concept of best practice has been employed extensively in environmental management. For example, it has been employed in aquaculture such as recommending low-phosphorus feed ingredients, in forestry to manage riparian buffer zones, in livestock and pasture management to regulate stocking rates, and in particular, best management practices have been important to improving water quality relating to nonpoint source pollution of fertilizers in agriculture as well as the identification and adoption of best practice for controlling salinity. However, in the context of complex environmental problems such as dryland salinity, there are significant challenges in defining what is best in any given context. Best management practice for complex problems is context specific and often contested against a background of imperfect knowledge. In these contexts, it is more useful to think of best management practice as an adaptive learning process rather than a fixed set of rules or guidelines. This approach to best practice focuses on fostering improvements in quality and promoting continuous learning.

Higher Education

STEM Program explanation is taken from Angela Baber's report to the NGA

The NGA has identified science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as important skills that need to be developed in community colleges in order to create a strong work force. Many states are creating or have created STEM Programs to address this issue. In order for these programs to work governors should: "

• Engage business to help ensure that community colleges meet regional STEM-skill needs

• Use community colleges to support new models of STEM education

• Reward community colleges and students for STEM course-completion

• Ensure that community colleges support more effective mathematics remediation

• Require that community college STEM credits and credentials are transferable".

Health and Human Services

San Francisco Public Health Department (External Link: http://www.sfdph.org/dph/default.asp) conducted The Transgender Best Practices Guide project, a best practices document for cultural and service competency in working with transgender clients within HIV/AIDS service- provision settings. Following an intensive literature search and consumer focus group, a Working Group composed of noted community leaders; activists, professionals, and transgender consumers participated in the development of the Best Practices guide. Topics covered by the Best Practices guide include mental health issues; gender identity; hormone use and clinical care practices. The Best Practices guide is currently in production; it will be published and distributed to EMA providers, as well as to select organizations nation-wide. In addition, four large-scale EMA provider trainings will be provided to educate providers on the Best Practices recommendations and standard measures. (Need to verify if already implemented) This is the first national federally funded effort to develop a Best Practices guide for providers who serve the HIV positive transgender community. (Reference: San Francisco Department of Public Health, Annual Report 2005-2006)

Other best practices domains

Best practices are used in nearly every industry and professional discipline. Areas of note include information technology development, such as new software, but also in construction, transportation, business management, sustainable development and various aspects of project management. Best practices are also used in healthcare to deliver high-quality care that promotes best outcomes. Best practices are used within business areas including sales, manufacturing, teaching, programming software, road construction, health care, insurance and public policy.