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The French Experience

Alexandra Giraud-Roufast, MD, MPH; Jean Michel Chabot, MD, PhD

JAMA. 2008;300(22):2663-2665.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

For 20 years, France, like most other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, has implemented various policies to improve the quality of services rendered to patients. As in all OECD countries, these policies have had mixed, variable, and often inconsistent results and, in all OECD countries, physicians have proved more or less reluctant toward quality assurance as it has been presented. In this Commentary, we consider the medical community's acceptance of quality assurance policies, describe the solutions adopted in France, and suggest some approaches to improve it.

Quality Assurance in France

In France, quality assurance of medical practice has been mandatory since 2004. Compulsory assessment of significant aspects of a physician's practice (evaluations of professional practice) by every physician is one of the measures of a 2004 law reforming National Health Insurance.¹ In 2003, in the face of an ever-increasing deficit of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Professional Autonomy

Time Requirements

Culture of Quality Assurance Procedures

Medicalizing Accreditation

Organizing Quality in Health Care

Author Affiliations: Department of Public Health, Hotel-Dieu Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand, France (Dr Giraud-Roufast); and French National Authority for Health, Paris, France (Dr Chabot).

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