Primary care clinician attitudes towards electronic clinical reminders and clinical practice guidelines

Compliance with outpatient practice guidelines is low and clinical reminders have had variable success in improving adherence rates. We surveyed primary care physicians (PCPs) regarding practice guidelines and the perceived utility of electronic reminders for both routine health maintenance (HM) items and chronic disease management. Most PCPs preferred receiving reminders in an electronic format rather than a paper format. Electronic reminders were felt to be more useful for HM items than for diabetes management. The majority of clinicians felt that electronic reminders significantly improved overall health care quality.