[Quality assurance in basic psychosomatic care. Report of an expert survey within the scope of the Federal Public Health Administration instigated pilot project].

This article outlines a nationwide quality improvement project in counselling funded by the German Ministry of Health. To develop the project, expert surveys and consensus conferences are currently organized by the coordination center. A questionnaire with mainly open questions was sent to 32 teachers in general practice. Counselling for psychiatric, psychosomatic and psychosocial problems in primary care was regarded as an important field for quality assurance. The experts believed short psychotherapy to be an integral part of family medicine as some 30% of our patients present with complaints caused by psychosocial or psychological reasons. However, only some 70% of patients receive a specific treatment. The experts rated better recognition of psychosomatic problems as the most important area for quality improvement. Suitable interventions to improve the physicians' ability in the area mentioned were continuing medical education, balint groups, quality circles and flexible guidelines. The experts made invaluable contributions to the development of a practice documentation for psychosocial problems.