Group visits hold great potential for improving diabetes care and outcomes, but best practices must be developed.
A diagnosis of diabetes can require multiple changes in a person's behavior, diet, and lifestyle. Efforts to sustain these changes and manage this complex chronic disease can be difficult. Group visits, in which several patients meet together with a primary care provider and transdisciplinary team, have tremendous potential to improve health care quality, cost, and access. When group-based diabetes self-management education and a primary care visit occur within a single appointment, people with the disease can address multiple needs in one visit and take advantage of peer groups for support and motivation. A review of the literature demonstrates that the efficacy of group visits has a promising evidence base-but more needs to be learned about optimal group size and aspects of the model that should be standardized. An important first step is introducing a procedural code for group visits, so that providers and researchers can better track the efficacy of the group-visit model and develop best practices before the model is adopted systemwide.
Pace University's College of Health Professions, Lienhard School of Nursing, New York City, NY, USA. rburke2@pace.edu
Robert E
RE
Burke
Eileen T
ET
O'Grady
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000628:therapy*; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D006126:Group Processes; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012648:Self Care