ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2011
Effect of financial incentives on incentivised and non-incentivised clinical activities: longitudinal analysis of data from the UK Quality and Outcomes Framework.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 138 papers, 14 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
138 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Effect of UK Quality and Outcomes Framework pay-for-performance programme on quality of primary care: systematic review with quantitative synthesis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Pooled it
- What drives general practitioners in the UK to improve the quality of care? A systematic literature review.BMJ open quality · 2021Pooled it
- Design and effects of outcome-based payment models in healthcare: a systematic review.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2019Pooled it
- Medications that reduce emergency hospital admissions: an overview of systematic reviews and prioritisation of treatments.BMC medicine · 2018Pooled it
- The role of the Quality and Outcomes Framework in the care of long-term conditions: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2017Pooled it
- Effectiveness of UK provider financial incentives on quality of care: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2017Pooled it
- Identifying primary care quality indicators for people with serious mental illness: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2017Pooled it
- Payment methods for outpatient care facilities.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Reporting standards for guideline-based performance measures.Implementation science : IS · 2016Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pharmaceutical policies: effects of financial incentives for prescribers.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- International experience in controlling pharmaceutical expenditure: influencing patients and providers and regulating industry - a systematic review.Journal of health services research & policy · 2015Pooled it
- Pay-for-performance in the United Kingdom: impact of the quality and outcomes framework: a systematic review.Annals of family medicinePooled it
- The Effect of Financial Incentives on Quality Measures in the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus: a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Financial incentives and information provision for post-pandemic primary care quality recovery: a longitudinal study in Catalonia.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Clustering of multimorbidity in stroke and transient ischaemic attack survivors: a population-based study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Validity of Using Prescription Medications to Classify Disease - A Retrospective Observational Study Using Routinely Collected Electronic Health Records from the UK.Pragmatic and observational research · 2026Article
- The impact of Croatia's 2013 Primary Care Payment Reform: an exploratory case study of a rural family practitioner group practice.Croatian medical journal · 2025Article
78 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate whether the incentive scheme for UK general practitioners led them to neglect activities not included in the scheme.
designLongitudinal analysis of achievement rates for 42 activities (23 included in incentive scheme, 19 not included) selected from 428 identified indicators of quality of care.
setting148 general practices in England (653 500 patients).
main outcome measuresAchievement rates projected from trends in the pre-incentive period (2000-1 to 2002-3) and actual rates in the first three years of the scheme (2004-5 to 2006-7).
resultsAchievement rates improved for most indicators in the pre-incentive period. There were significant increases in the rate of improvement in the first year of the incentive scheme (2004-5) for 22 of the 23 incentivised indicators. Achievement for these indicators reached a plateau after 2004-5, but quality of care in 2006-7 remained higher than that predicted by pre-incentive trends for 14 incentivised indicators. There was no overall effect on the rate of improvement for non-incentivised indicators in the first year of the scheme, but by 2006-7 achievement rates were significantly below those predicted by pre-incentive trends.
conclusionsThere were substantial improvements in quality for all indicators between 2001 and 2007. Improvements associated with financial incentives seem to have been achieved at the expense of small detrimental effects on aspects of care that were not incentivised.
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