Interviews consisted of open-ended questions related to priority setting and fairness of the decision-making process (Table 2).
Research has shown that commissioners are more likely to make marginal investments or disinvestments related to priority setting and rationing than engage in large strategic change.
This results section describes perceptions, concepts and practices related to priority setting (PS) processes as they emerged over a period of three years (2008-2010) amour our study participants.
The purpose of the survey was to understand the context within the PHSA as it related to priority setting activity, and to explore the potential for embarking on an explicit priority setting process within this organization.
Furthermore, in addressing a number of key issues related to priority setting, our intent was to stimulate new thinking on these matters and importantly assist decision makers in practical terms.
The purpose was to examine organizational context and other antecedent conditions related to priority setting, which were then utilized in later stages of the research as discussed in the preceding section.
The paper also addresses several key issues related to priority setting including how health technology assessments can be used, how performance can be improved at a practical level, and what ongoing resource management practice should look like.
The output of the first phase was high acceptance of the approach in both workshops, a description of health planners' needs related to priority setting and 'accountability for reasonableness', and a draft needs assessment tool.
However, much of the literature relates to priority setting in biomedical research rather than in health services research; and much of it emanates from the research institutes themselves [ 14, 15].
However our choice to focus narrowly on priority setting success arose from the need to both define and evaluate a successful priority setting intervention - which the decision makers in our empirical work felt was related to priority setting outcomes (such as improved stakeholder understanding, shifted priorities, improved decision making, stakeholder acceptance, and positive externalities).
