Professional commitment to changing chronic illness care: results from disease management programmes.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate to what extent primary care professionals are able to change their systems for delivering care to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and what professional and organizational factors are associated with the degree of process implementation. DESIGN Quasi-experimental design with 1 year follow-up after intervention. SETTING Three regional COPD management programmes in the Netherlands, in which general practices cooperated with regional hospitals. PARTICIPANTS All participating primary care professionals (n = 52). INTERVENTION COPD management programme. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Professional commitment, organizational context and degree of process implementation. RESULTS Professionals significantly changed their systems for delivering care to COPD patients, namely self-management support, decision support, delivery system design and clinical information systems. Associations were found between organizational factors, professional commitment and changes in processes of care. Group culture and professional commitment appeared to be, to a moderate degree, predictors of process implementation. CONCLUSIONS COPD management was effective; all processes improved significantly. Moreover, theoretically expected associations between organizational context and professional factors with the implementation of COPD management were indeed confirmed to some extent. Group culture and professional commitment are important facilitators.