Developing a professional competency framework for general practitioners in tertiary hospitals in China: a modified Delphi study

At present, the competency of general practitioners (GPs) in tertiary hospitals has not been reported, and there is no suitable competency evaluation tool. This study was conducted to develop a professional competency framework for GPs in tertiary hospitals.

A modified Delphi method was adopted in the study.

Considering the expert authority, a wide range of sources, expert qualification and willingness, 20 eligible experts were invited and 19 experts agreed to participate in this study.

19 experts (the median age of the experts was 51 (49, 57) years and 84.2% were women) participated in both two rounds of Delphi survey. From the literature review, 4 primary indicators, 14 secondary indicators and 48 tertiary indicators were identified. In the first round, all indicators achieved consensus except for the secondary indicator '3.3 Data processing', which did not achieve 70.0% agreement in both of importance (63.2% agreement) and feasibility (63.2% agreement). After the first round of the Delphi survey, the description of 7 secondary indicators and 11 tertiary indicators was modified. Two secondary indicators and two tertiary indicators were merged, respectively. One secondary indicator was deleted due to not achieving consensus level, and seven new tertiary indicators were suggested to be added by more than two experts. After the second round of the Delphi survey, all three levels of indicators achieved consensus in terms of importance and feasibility. Finally, the professional competency framework for GPs in tertiary hospitals in China was constructed including 4 primary indicators, 12 secondary indicators and 54 tertiary indicators.

The professional competency framework for GPs in tertiary hospitals in China was successfully constructed in this study with good scientific soundness and rationality. It is expected to be used in medical education, general practice research, quality improvement and more broadly within the healthcare system to reflect the competency of GPs in tertiary hospital.