Some experts say a national commitment to improve compliance with practice guidelines is lacking.
By Linda O. Prager , AMNews staff. Sept. 13, 1999. Yet another study confirms that actual clinical practice often doesn't live up to recommended care. A decade after professional organizations began pushing for implementation of clinical practice guidelines to ensure patients receive needed care, significant deviation from those guidelines is still prevalent, new data from the Michigan-based Medstat Group show. Many now think pressure will have to come from outside the medical profession before that gap can be closed.