PHYSICIANS CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARD GUIDELINES

The objective of the study was to measure the change in physicians' at titudes toward preventive care guidelines over a 2-year period, The st udy was conducted at a Southern California managed care medical group that was experiencing intense price competition, We analyzed individua lized survey responses of 62 HMO primary care physicians over the stud y period. We found that physicians increasingly believed that clinical guidelines were being used for cast containment (first survey 71% vs second survey 92%, p < .005) and less for quality improvement (first s urvey 85% vs second survey 67%, p < .008) over time. These findings ma y create a barrier to physicians' adoption of practice guidelines.