[Interviews with physicians in private practice as a starting point for quality improvement in hospitals]

Subjective criteria gain importance in care research and quality management. Therefore, psychiatrists in private practice and general practitioners working in the catchment area of a psychiatric hospital were surveyed by questionnaire evaluating expectations and satisfaction concerning their collaboration with the hospital. Psychiatrists and general practitioners rated legible interim discharge letters, good in-patient treatment, adequate diagnostics, and direct referral to the hospital as most important. Psychiatrists express dissatisfaction regarding prescription of expensive drugs, lack of involvement in planning new psychiatric institutions, delivery of discharge summaries, referring back the patient after in-patient care, and delay of hospital admission. As conclusion, quality management should pay more attention to ambulatory care physicians' points of view to reduce problems of interaction between clinicians and their colleagues in private practice and to improve the treatment continuity of psychiatric patients.