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Abstract
Recent re-evaluation of preventive health care has resulted in more limited and directed
guidelines; nonetheless, physician compliance has remained poor. This study assessed
whether an inexpensive reminder system of preventive care checklists would improve
physician implementation of periodic health measures. Residents in internal medicine
were randomly placed into two groups: one received a copy of the appropriate checklist
with each patient's medical record; the other did not. After one year, 200 randomly
selected records were audited to determine the proportion of recommendations implemented
for each patient. Residents who received checklists performed appropriate preventive
health measures at a significantly higher rate than those who did not (0.56 ± 0.26
versus 0.39 ± 0.22, p <0.002). The actual use of the checklist to record the results
was associated with an even higher rate of compliance compared with instances in which
the checklists were provided but not used and instances in which checklists were not
received (0.70 ± 0.21 versus 0.44 ± 0.24 and 0.39 ± 0.22, respectively, p <0.002).
These data suggest that a physician's use of simple checklists can provide an inexpensive
and effective means of improving implementation of periodic health maintenance.
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
December 16,
1986
Received:
July 23,
1986
Identification
Copyright
© 1987 The American Journal of Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc.
