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Table 2 Other barriers for the implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines

From: Individual, health system, and contextual barriers and facilitators for the implementation of clinical practice guidelines: a systematic metareview

Contexts

Other barriers

Political and social context

• Difficulties in prioritising the health problem [16, 20, 29]

• Lack of access to information, lack of mechanisms and systems to support storing of information [6, 13, 16, 20]

Health organisational system context

• Lack of protocols and processes that clearly define the roles within the institution to implement guidelines [19, 28, 29, 34, 35]

• Additional workload [6, 14, 16, 18,19,20, 27, 28, 34]

• Difficulty accessing health services [18, 21, 28, 29, 32]

• Difficulties with availability of medicines [13, 18, 24, 27]

• Deficiency in staff continuous education [18, 20, 27, 28]

• Deficiencies in the referral of patients to services [18, 23, 27]

• Lack of skill and specialist knowledge within services

• Insufficient support from institutions [15, 18, 30]

• High turnover of staff that prevents a continuous training process [18, 20, 23]

• Limitations of infrastructure [18, 20, 29]

• Lack of availability of interpreters in services [20, 28, 29]

• Lack of access to information, lack of mechanisms and systems to support storing of information [13, 16, 20]

Guidelines context

• Lack of awareness of the existence of guidelines and clarity of guidelines [13, 16,17,18,19, 23, 28]

• Beliefs that the guidelines evidence is incorrect or not enough to be reported [17, 19, 27, 35]

• Beliefs that CPG is too rigid, may not always be practical and cannot be applied on a day-to-day [16, 19, 29, 32]

• Guidelines restrict clinical judgment and challenge professional autonomy and limits treatment options [18, 20]

Health professional context

• Greater confidence in clinical experience than in guidelines recommendations [17, 19, 20, 24, 27, 31]

• Lack of effective communication, research and self-learning skills [16, 17, 20, 23, 25, 28,29,30]

• Resistance to change caused by disagreement with the recommendations of the CPG, doubts about the efficacy of interventions and clinical outcomes [16, 18, 22, 24, 29, 32]

• Physician’s reluctance to use CPG because of patient factors, self-belief or fear of complications [16, 18, 20, 23, 26, 29]

• Little familiarity with guideline recommendations [18, 23, 28, 29, 32]

• Negative attitudes of physicians towards the implementation of the guideline or to EBM [16, 17, 19, 24, 27]

• Lack of autonomy and authority [17, 18]

• Belief that intervention was not part of their role [16, 26, 30]

Patient context

• Language and literacy problems [18, 20, 24]

• Lack of motivation, compliance and knowledge to follow the recommendations [20, 25, 28, 29]

• Patient comorbidities, mobility problems, polypharmacy and self-empowerment capacity [20, 26, 28, 29]

• Patients’ financial situation and occupational status [20]

• Depression, anxiety and fear [28,29,30,31]

  1. CPGs clinical practice guidelines