title: Development of consensus guidelines for conditions commonly managed in general practice. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Initially, the project objective was to develop audit protocols for commonly managed conditions in general practice. However, as the nature of the project evolved these objectives changed to developing consensus guidelines.
  
  
  METHODS
  An iterative process was undertaken using mail-outs to gain items for potential inclusion in an audit protocol. This resulted in a change of direction to management guidelines. Consensus, as to the validity of inclusion of items in each guideline, was then achieved by continuing to use an iterative process.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Guidelines for 30 presenting complaints were developed. Because a number of differential diagnoses were possible for each complaint, a total of 105 guidelines were developed. A total of 263 general practitioners participated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The concept of discriminant actions was developed. It was agreed that this described the clinical decision making that occurs in the general practices of participating practitioners. It is feasible to use an iterative method undertaken by mail to develop consensus guidelines for conditions that are commonly managed by general practitioners.
authors.affiliation: Memorial Hospital, North Adelaide, South Australia.
authors.forename: I D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Steven
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Coffey
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Burgess
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mudge
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003657:Decision Making; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends