Influencing physician performance

For physicians to change their behavior, they must internalize the need for change. One way to do this is to get the physicians to agree to the improvement. In this study, surgeons were asked to agree that documentation is important. When surgeons who agreed that documentation is important were compared with those who did not express agreement, those who agreed were more likely to provide the required clinical documentation. Furthermore, they showed improvement in their percentage of cases with the required documentation when compared to themselves over time. Simple strategies such as asking for a private commitment to change can enhance competency with documentation requirements.