title: Perceived usefulness of nine quality improvement tools among Swiss physicians.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Doctors' opinions about quality improvement tools likely influence their uptake and eventual impact on patient care. Little is known about physicians' perception of the comparative utility of various quality improvement tools.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a mail survey of doctors in Geneva, Switzerland (2745 physicians, of whom 56% participated), to measure the perceived usefulness of 9 quality improvement tools.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In decreasing order of perceived utility these tools were regular continuous education (rated as very or extremely useful by 75% of respondents), mortality and morbidity conferences (65%), quality circles (60%), patient satisfaction measurement (42%), assessment of the fulfillment of therapeutic objectives (41%), assessment of compliance with guidelines (36%), periodic evaluation of doctors' skills (14%), onsite visits with peer-review of medical records (11%), and certification of office practices (8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Quality improvement tools seen as most useful by physicians are traditional methods such as continuous education and mortality and morbidity conferences. Methods that rely on the measurement of indicators or that have a judgmental component received less support.
authors.affiliation: Division of clinical epidemiology, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Service d'épidémiologie clinique, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Rue Gabrielle Perret-Gentil 6, 1211 GENEVE 14, Switzerland. jannot_as@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Jannot
authors.affiliation: Division of clinical epidemiology, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Perneger