Abstract
BackgroundFeedback is widely used as a strategy to improve the quality of care in primary care settings. As part of a study conducted to explore the quality of preventive care, we investigated general practitioners’ (GPs) views on the usefulness of feedback and their preferences regarding how feedback is provided.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 among randomly selected community-based GPs in two regions of Switzerland and France. GPs were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire about how often they provided 12 measures of preventive care: blood pressure, weight and height measurements, screening for dyslipidemia, at-risk drinking (and advice to reduce for at-risk drinkers), smoking (and advice to stop for smokers), colon and prostate cancer, and influenza immunization for patients >65 years and at-risk patients. They were also asked to estimate the usefulness of a feedback regarding their preventive care practice, reason(s) for which a feedback could be useful, and finally, to state which type of feedback they would like to receive. Chi-square tests were used to compare frequencies. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with GPs considering feedback as useful.ResultsFive hundred eighteen of 1100 GPs (47.1%) returned the questionnaire. They were predominantly men (62.5%) and most (40.1%) were aged between 55 and 64 years old. Overall, 44.3% stated that a feedback would be useful. Younger GPs and those carrying out more measures of preventive care were more likely to consider feedback useful. The two main reasons for being interested in feedback were to receive knowledge about the study results and to modify or improve practice. The two preferred feedback interventions were a brief report and a report with specific information regarding prevention best practice, whereas less than 1% would like to discuss the results face-to-face with the study investigators.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that GPs have preferences regarding the types of feedback they would like to receive. Because the implementation of guidelines is highly related to the acceptance of feedback, we strongly encourage decision makers to take GPs’ preferences into account when developing strategies to implement guidelines, in order to improve the quality of primary care.
Highlights
Feedback is widely used as a strategy to improve the quality of care in primary care settings
As part of a study that assessed the quality of preventive care in Western Switzerland and in two French regions (Alsace, Pays de la Loire), we investigated the feasibility of a practice-based quality improvement feedback
44.3% estimated that feedback for preventive care recommendations would be indispensable or very useful (11.6% found feedback indispensable, 32.7% very useful, 36.7% rather useful, 10.0% not very useful, 9.0% useless)
Summary
Feedback is widely used as a strategy to improve the quality of care in primary care settings. As part of a study conducted to explore the quality of preventive care, we investigated general practitioners’ (GPs) views on the usefulness of feedback and their preferences regarding how feedback is provided. Much of preventive care is provided by general practitioners (GPs). Prevention is important for the management of major modifiable risk factors, such as smoking, dyslipidemia, obesity, and high blood pressure [1]. In France, the medical authorities decided to focus their guidelines on the management of diseases rather than on preventive care alone [9]. Though some aspects of preventive care are addressed in disease-specific guidelines, French GPs meet more difficulties accessing national preventive recommendations [9]
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