Developing quality indicators as educational tools to measure the implementation of clinical practice guidelines.

Our objective was to explore expectations and recommendations for the development of measurable quality indicators as educational tools to implement clinical practice guidelines. A survey using structured personal interviews with a stratified sample of 20 health professionals was made. Questions analyzed preferences in evaluating quality of care, measuring discrepancies between clinical guidelines and actual practice patterns, and the development of quality indicators. All of our participants (100%) reported that the compliance with established and widely accepted clinical guidelines is an important quality indicator. Health professionals indicated 1.8 (+/- 1.1) overall preference of our developed quality indicators for the management of depression. Although most currently used quality indicators focus either on the process or on the outcome of care, health professionals strongly prefer indicators that measure both. Our measurable quality indicators were found to have wide acceptance without major differences among primary care physicians, medical directors, and health benefit managers.

Managing physician practice patterns: providing information feedback to improve quality care & reduce cost.

The current movement for health care reform has inspired the search for new and better ways to improve the quality of health care and contain cost. Hospital and the health services management professionals have increasingly embraced the methodology of assessing physician practice patterns to achieve these goals. One such method, computerized feedback systems, may open a door to the future that will allow physicians to compare their practice patterns with those of their peers. Such systems may enable physicians to modify their practice patterns, improve quality care and reduce cost.