Department/School
Social Work
Date of this version
2013
Document Type
Article
Keywords
depression, health care (access to), health care (primary), qualitative analysis, quality improvement, quality of care
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732313482399
Abstract
Using clinical trials, researchers have demonstrated effective methods for treating depression in primary care, but improvements based on these trials are not being implemented. This might be because these improvements require more systematic organizational changes than can be made by individual physicians. We interviewed 82 physicians and administrative leaders of 41 medical groups to learn what is preventing those organizational changes. The identified barriers to improving care included external contextual problems (reimbursement, scarce resources, and access to/communication with specialty mental health), individual attitudes (physician and patient resistance), and internal care process barriers (organizational and condition complexity, difficulty standardizing and measuring care). Although many of these barriers are challenging, we can overcome them by setting clear priorities for change and allocating adequate resources. We must improve primary care of depression if we are to reduce its enormous adverse social and economic impacts.
Volume
23
Issue
6
Published in
https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732313482399
Citation/Other Information
Whitebird, R. R., Solberg, L. I., Margolis, K. L., Asche, S. E., Trangle, M. A., & Wineman, A. P. (2013). Barriers to improving primary care of depression: Perspectives of medical group leaders. Qualitative Health Research, 23(6), 805-814. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732313482399