Diabetes education is a very important part of diabetes care. Most people with diabetes receive care in primary care practices where diabetes education is not always available. This project tests a model designed to improve access to diabetes education services.
Evidence that diabetes self-management education (DSME) can improve health outcomes has repeatedly been shown and is considered to be a critical component of care. Diabetes educators are highly skilled at addressing diabetes-related clinical and behavioral needs through DSME, but engagement with diabetes educators is underutilized. It has been suggested that poor referral practices and the way in which DSME service is delivered are the problems. Most patients receive diabetes care in primary care yet most DSME programs are distinctly separate from primary care practice. This limits care coordination and diabetes educator access to amenities currently available to primary care. Efforts are underway to change the US health care paradigm with a focus on quality in primary care that includes practice redesign, population management, and communication through electronic medical records. The purpose of this application is to evaluate the deployment of Glucose to Goal, a model relying on a systematic redesign of practice that links diabetes educators services with primary care. This will be compared to the traditional process for DSME delivery, without the direct connection to primary care processes, for an eighteen month period. The hypothesis is that the proportion of primary care provider referrals and patient utilization of diabetes educator services from primary care practices participating in Glucose to Goal will be higher compared to those associated with traditional DSME. It is anticipated that this model will appeal to primary care providers, demonstrate a feasible approach to offering diabetes education in the current health environment, and set the stage for future testing of the model, namely its impact on meaningful improvements on diabetes outcomes and cost-effectiveness.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
4,994
The Glucose to Goal intervention applies elements of the Patient Centered Medical Home (i.e., practice design, decision support, population management, etc) to diabetes education services and operationalizes the current DSME objectives in the primary care setting.
The control group will follow the traditional DMSE delivery model, which includes primary care providers referring patients to an outpatient, hospital-based diabetes educator for DSME, but in a passive manner (i.e., without proactive patient identification), which is the usual process for referrals.
UPMC Community Medicine, Inc.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Provider referral
The proportion of provider referrals for DSME divided by the total number of patients eligible for a referral. Patients will be considered eligible for referral if they were seen by their primary care provider during the intervention period and the provider did not contraindicate DSME for any reason. Referrals (eligibility for and made) will be tracked through electronic medical record review.
Time frame: Monitor continuously across 18 months
Patient participation
Patient participation will be reported as the proportion of patients who participate in DSME divided by the total number of eligible patients from each participating primary care practice during the study period and will take into account patterns and frequency of visits. Patients will be considered eligible if they have received a referral to DSME from their primary care provider. Patients will be offered the opportunity to meet with the diabetes educator for a series of DSME visits and these visits will occur in individual or group format, depending on space, scheduling, etc. The number and content of the visits will be patient-centered (driven by the patient). Patients eligible for and participating in DSME will be tracked through electronic medical record review.
Time frame: Monitor continuously across 18 months
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