EUROPEP is the brain-child of EQUIP, the quality of care network of WONCA-Europe, and it is with great pride that I recommand this new milestone. It heralds the network's seminal work to develop ever better methods to further improve primary care for patients throughout Europe. I am sure it will find its way around.
The EUROPEP instrument is a 23-item validated and internationally standardized measure of patient evaluations of general practice care. An international consortium of researchers and general practitioners, linked to EQuiP, developed the instrument in the years 1995 - 1998. The instrument has been used in about 20 countries and is available in Dutch, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian, Portugese, Swedish, Slovenish, and Turkish.
The instrument was developed from the beginning as an international instrument, using rigorous translation and validation procedures. We aimed at use for educational purposes in practices and regions as well as nationwide surveys and international comparisons. A series of studies were performed for its development, including an international study on patient priorities and studies to examine proto-versions of the questionnaire. A large number of scientific publications using EUROPEP has been published.
Since its development, the Europep instrument has been used in many local, regional and national projects. Some countries use it on a very large scale. An email discussion in 2006 among a group of users of the instrument led to a minor revision. In several rounds of proposals and responses consensus was achieved on the revision of the current Europep questionnaire. The English source version of the Europep 2006 instrument is ready for use and can be found in the attached manual.
Richard Grol and Michel Wensing: PATIENTS EVALUATE GENERAL/FAMILY PRACTICE - The EUROPEP instrument (2000)