[Self-assessment and quality development in primary care: results of the German pilot study using the International Maturity Matrix].

The International Maturity Matrix has been developed with the aim to provide a European instrument for a facilitated self-assessment of primary care organisations. It covers seven dimensions; their implementation is evaluated by the whole practice team on six theoretically-founded levels of organisational development. The present paper will report the results of the German pilot study with 22 participating primary care practices. The purpose of the study was to test the feasibility of self-assessment with the International Maturity Matrix which, in addition to the practice team's self-assessment, also contains the development of options for improvement on the basis of benchmarking the practice's individual achievements with the results of the other participating practices. To summarise, the survey shows positive results for the participating practices; in two meetings, the time-saving process allows for sharing the different perspectives of the practice team members, identifying relevant strengths and weaknesses and developing ideas for improvement motivated by the benchmarking. These results can be interpreted as first promising indications of the high feasibility of the self-assessment process with the International Maturity Matrix. First applications of the International Maturity Matrix in different medical disciplines have been started.