Differential shared care for diabetes: does it provide the optimal partition between primary and specialist care?
OBJECTIVE
To establish whether a system of differential shared care between general practitioners and specialists is compatible with patients receiving the level of care they require.


METHODS
We sought to trace 200 shared care patients whose care had been kept at the general practitioner level after initial referral and compared them with a group of patients who had been re-referred to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Diabetes Centre for specialist review.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences in glycaemic, blood pressure and lipid levels of returned and non-returned patients at initial assessment. However, non-returned patients were less likely to have a history of macrovascular disease or risk factor (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.4; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.2-0.6). Their referral letter was also more likely to emphasize their type and/or duration of diabetes (adjusted OR 4.6; 95% CI 2.5-8.4). Nearly half (47.1%) of the non-returned group changed their doctor in the years following their initial specialist review, increasing their likelihood of not being re-referred five-fold (adjusted OR 5.0; 95% CI 2.9-8.8). At initial assessment, non-returned patients were given less treatment recommendations (adjusted OR 0.5; 95% CI 0.3-0.7). Doctors registered with the Diabetes Shared Care Programme referred more patients than their non-shared care counterparts. However, a higher proportion of these doctors (52.5% vs. 21.3%; chi(2) = 16.5, 1 d.f., P = 0.00005) were selective in whom they re-referred.


CONCLUSIONS
Differential shared care encourages appropriate referral to specialist services, without compromise to standards of care. Diabet. Med. 18, 554-557 (2001)
Overland
J
J
Diabetes Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown NSW, Australia. jane@diab.rpa.cs.nsw.gov.au
Mira
M
M
Yue
D K
DK
D001315:Australia; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D001794:Blood Pressure; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D019992:Databases as Topic; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood; D008511:Medicine; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012307:Risk Factors; D013038:Specialization
D001786:Blood Glucose; D008055:Lipids