Assessment of Medical Practitioners' Perceptions of Clinical Practice Guidelines

A survey of 163 medical practitioners from three federal facilities was undertaken during February through April 1996, to assess attitudes toward, confidence in, and familiarity with clinical practice guidelines. A response rate of 83.4 percent was achieved. Practitioners attitudes toward guidelines were found to be generally neutral. VAMC practitioners were found to have slightly more favorable attitudes. Levels of confidence in guidelines issued by various organizations were found to be in the low to medium range. VAMC practitioners had more confidence in guidelines issued by third party payers than Army practitioners. Levels of familiarity in guidelines developed by various organizations were generally lower than the corresponding confidence scores. No differences existed among the groups. Practitioners thought that formal literature review and reliance on national experts were the most important methods used in guideline development. Also, the characteristics of validity, reliability, and flexibility were important in practitioners' acceptance of guidelines.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Assessment of Medical Practitioners' Perceptions of Clinical Practice Guidelines', published 1997 under ISBN 9781423584452 and ISBN 1423584457.