Developing criteria for quality of assessment: effect of the Delphi technique.

We examined the effect of the Delphi iteration procedure in developing explicit criteria for ambulatory care assessment. Practicing internists chose items they believed to be essential with regard to the care of certain specified conditions. The initial responses were tabulated and "fed-back" to the participants. The second round of criteria selection, with the first-round summary available, produced few and relatively minor changes in the items chosen by group consensus.