Consensus guidelines: improving the delivery of clinical preventive services.
BACKGROUND
Medical directors from the largest competing health plans in the state came together in a noncompetitive way to collaborate on improving the delivery of clinical preventive service (CPS) among their provider base. They identified one consistent set of CPS guidelines based on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations, the health plan consensus guidelines (HPCG), that they could endorse as priority for guideline implementation.


OBJECTIVE
The purposes of this study were to assess clinicians' knowledge and use of CPS recommendations as a guide to delivering preventive care services to their patients and, most importantly, to test the effectiveness of providing the HPCG to clinicians in an effort to increase knowledge and use of CPS guidelines.


METHODS
Within-subjects repeated-measures design was used. We hypothesized an increase in clinician's knowledge and use of CPS after the provision of the HPCG.


METHODS
Survey methodology, including two surveys that assessed clinicians' knowledge and use of CPS in practice, was used. Health plan clinician databases were obtained from the health plans that participated in the development of the HPCG. Health plan clinicians directly involved in delivering preventive services were invited to participate in the study. Final sample included 163 clinicians. Spearman's rho correlation coefficients were determined to examine the relationships between clinician's knowledge and clinician's use of CPS guidelines. Differences between knowledge and use of CPS before and after HPCG were examined by t tests.


RESULTS
No difference was found in the familiarity with U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines before and after receipt of HPCG. However, clinician's use increased significantly.


CONCLUSIONS
A consistent set of CPS guidelines provided by competing health plans can improve the delivery of CPS among contracted health plan clinicians. This approach provides a template for competing health plans nationwide to come to consensus on guidelines that support clinicians in the delivery of CPS ().
Ayres
Cynthia G
CG
The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers College of Nursing, Newark, NJ, USA. cgayres@rutgers.edu
Griffith
Hurdis M
HM
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D032921:Consensus; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000592:standards*; D009515:New Jersey; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States