The people who create guidelines often do not take responsibility for distribution to appropriate parties. But if the objective is to improve patient care, then I'm not sure that objective has been achieved. One study revealed that even when a single strategy for implementation has been ineffective, multiple implementation strategies may work. Not surprisingly, guidelines are less effective when they are complex, lengthy, and difficult to remember, so it helps to keep them simple a crucial lesson that is frequently forgotten or ignored. Wennberg believes that the input of local data is also critical to the effectiveness of guidelines.
Health care is a local phenomenon.
Wennberg agrees and adds that such methods can be used after the guidelines are created to bring the research into practice. However, Weingarten cautions that although these adjuncts have been shown to work, they do not address large-scale guideline use. These were often very focused approaches. If you take an academic medical center with 20 doctors, you can make a difference. Many people believe that technology may hold the key to routine guideline use.