title: Strategies for implementing quantifiable group practice guidelines.
abstract: Managed care organizations are striving to provide quality healthcare by establishing best-practice guidelines that decrease the variability in delivering care. Current literature provides few details on how organizations have developed and implemented guidelines and evaluated indicators. This article describes Methodist Medical Group's step-by-step approach to executing each component of this process for seven guidelines in physician office practices. It offers practical guidance for choosing a measurement method for each guideline, introduces patient surveys to measure guidelines, and identifies proven strategies for overcoming barriers in each phase.
authors.affiliation: jgruber@clarian.com
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Gruber
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy; D004496:Education, Continuing; D006123:Group Practice / Q000592:standards*; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D007324:Institutional Management Teams; D007857:Leadership; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000592:standards*; D008332:Management Quality Circles; D008485:Medical Audit / Q000379:methods; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016730:Program Development; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration