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Clinical guidelines: attitudes, information processes and culture in English primary care
Author(s) -
Dowswell George,
Harrison Stephen,
Wright John
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.618
Subject(s) - autonomy , guideline , relevance (law) , organizational culture , medical prescription , primary care , public relations , focus group , psychology , medicine , nursing , political science , business , family medicine , marketing , law , pathology
The application to clinical medicine of evidence‐based clinical guidelines is an increasingly international policy prescription, yet research on how such guidelines might be implemented has tended to focus on change initiatives without seeking to understand change processes. This paper reports an empirical study of guideline implementation in UK general practice. Most GPs welcome guidelines as a means of improving care, though have reservations about their authority, relevance and effect on professional autonomy. ‘Clan’ organizational culture predominates and general practices do not generally have well‐functioning internal arrangements for the management of clinical evidence and related information. We found no coherent relationships between these variables and practices' actual uptake of guidelines. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.