title: Improving the quality of diabetes care in primary care practice.
abstract: The quality of care delivered to patients with diabetes has an impact on long-term outcomes. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to examine the effect of a Diabetes Disease Management Program (DDMP) on compliance with recommended process measures of care in primary care practice settings. Certified diabetes nurse educators visited five participating primary care practices biweekly for 1 year providing education to physicians and office staff on standards for diabetes management and to patients regarding self-management. Among 208 participants, 85.5% had >2 HbA1cs, 93.6% had lipid profiles, and 100% had foot examinations. Improvements in HbA1c (9.0% to 7.7%) were observed. Implementation of DDMP effectively promotes compliance with care standards in primary care practices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA. edcjan@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Janice C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Zgibor
authors.forename: Harsha
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wesche-Thobaben
authors.forename: Nancie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gallagher
authors.forename: Janis
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McWilliams
authors.forename: Mary T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Korytkowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy*; D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States