Box 2.

General principles for guiding development of QI reports based on scoping interviews

  • Do not overload GPs and practice staff with information.

  • Make reports directly relevant to improving patient care, ideally by allowing GPs to re-identify patients whose care may need to be reviewed.

  • Make it clear what GPs can do as a result of the report; the expected action must be clear and directly beneficial to patients.

  • Benchmarking, both at GP level within practices as well as at practice level across the whole dataset, would be a useful way of making GPs think about the care they provide; this overview would then provide users with the incentive to drill down to the patient level.

  • Any reports must not only be quick and easy to understand for all practice staff but also add value to make them worth taking time to read.

  • It is important not to present these reports as a performance management measure; the reports must be supportive of practice initiatives around quality improvement.

  • QI = quality improvement.