Improving quality of care with practice guidelines.
In sum, I believe that we know how to develop good practice guidelines today, even though we currently invest paltry sums to do so. Well-constructed guidelines can have a substantial positive impact on quality. By focusing on problems of overuse, costs can be reduced as well. Implementation of guidelines is an absolutely central step in the application of this important quality improvement tool. Practitioners of continuous quality improvement require few external incentives to capitalize on the value of guidelines in the effort to improve quality and are likely to experience their full potential benefit. They may require some prodding to address problems of overuse. Others will need additional inducements. Using reimbursement to reward the attainment of high quality, publishing data on provider performance on various quality measures, and recognizing the salutary effect of adherence to guidelines on liability can provide such incentives.
New York State Department of Health, Albany.
M R
MR
Chassin
D010816:Physician Incentive Plans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive; D014481:United States