Performance assessment. Family physicians in Montreal meet the mark!

OBJECTIVE To assess the clinical performance of a representative non-volunteer sample of family physicians in metropolitan Montreal, Que.

DESIGN Assessment of clinical performance was based on inspection visits to offices, peer review of medical records, and chart-stimulated recall interviews. The procedure was the one usually followed by the Professional Inspection Committee of the Collège des médecins du Québec.

SETTING Family physicians' practices in metropolitan Montreal.

PARTICIPANTS One hundred randomly selected family physicians.

INTERVENTIONS For each physician, 30 randomly chosen patient charts with data on three to five previous visits were reviewed using explicit criteria and a standard scale using global scores from 1 to 5 (unacceptable to excellent).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Scores were assigned for office practices; record keeping; number of continuing medical education (CME) activities; and quality of clinical performance assessed in terms of investigation plan, diagnostic accuracy, treatment plan, and relevance of care.

RESULTS Overall performance was judged to be good to excellent for 98% of physicians in their private practices; for 90% of physicians concerning CME activities; for 94% of physicians concerning their clinical performance in terms of quality of care; and for 75% of physicians as to record keeping. There was a link between record keeping and quality of care as well as between the number of CME activities and quality of care.

CONCLUSION The overall clinical performance of family physicians in the greater Montreal region is excellent.