Northwest Herts diabetic management system.
The Diabetic Management System was set up in Hemel Hempstead within the Dacorum district (population 119515 with 2176 registered patients with diabetes). The objective was to create a clinical management system for all patients with diabetes in a district using a computerised clinical base. To achieve this a database of agreed clinical information was collected from all general practitioners within the district. From the computerised data we can identify those patients who do not have data recorded and can recall them for review. Consultant advice can be given on patients with special or multiple risks identified from interrogation of the database. The outcome has been a higher percentage of patients with diabetes receiving clinical review and achieving optimal clinical targets within the reviews. We already have recorded data on 85% for retinal screening and 75% for comprehensive annual reviews. Conclusions drawn from the Dacorum Diabetic Management System are that effective diabetic care to a population can be provided by a combination of hospital and primary care. Primary care needs to be supported by adequate consultant advice with continued monitoring of the whole population to ensure standards are met. This system achieves this without increased hospital referrals.
Johnston
C
C
St Albans and Hemel Hempstead NHS Trust, Hillfield Road, Herts HP2 4AD, Hemel Hempstead, UK.
Ponsonby
E
E
D003199:Computer Systems; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000191:economics; D006113:United Kingdom