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With tact and measure ? French doctors wrestling with the idea of assessing their medical practice – G. Bloy, L. Rigal

Géraldine Bloy
UMR CNRS 5118, pôle d’économie et de gestion, laboratoire d’économie et de gestion (LEG), university of Bourgogne, 2, boulevard Gabriel, BP 26611, 21066 Dijon cedex, France

Laurent Rigal
Faculty of medicine, department of general medicine, university Paris Descartes, 15, rue de l’École-de-Médecine, 75006 Paris, France
Inserm CESP 1018, hôpital Paul-Brousse, bâtiment 15/16, 16, avenue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, 94807 Villejuif cedex, France

Available online 17 September 2013 on Science direct
doi : 10.1016/j.soctra.2013.08.002

Abstract
This article focuses on the impact of measuring quality in family medicine. Throwing the reforms that have affected private practice into temporal perspective shows that it has recently undergone a decisive “metric-oriented turn”. Effects of quantitative assessment on general practitioners are observed thanks to two original studies on preventive care. Professionals’ critiques and forms of resistance are examined before delving into the experiences and arguments of GPs who consent to the measurement of medical work, even agreeing to do it themselves. We end by evaluating the ongoing inflections of the professional model and the way the private medical sector in France is governed.

Article Outline

  • 1. How evaluating and measuring fell on general practitioners
  • 2. Criticism of, and professional resistance to, escalating measurement
  • 3. Toward a new professional model thanks to indicators ?
  • 4. Conclusion
  • References

Sociologie du Travail
Volume 55, Supplement 1, November 2013
Translated by Gabrielle Varro