The Feasibility and Usefulness of a Diabetes Medical Care Program in Small-Scale Hospital

Abstract

We constructed a system for advising diabetic outpatients at cross-sectional departments in a small-scale hospital and investigated the feasibility and usefulness of the system. Our interdisciplinary diabetes care team developed a diabetes education program, and the team that formed around the primary physician advised the patients who were following the program. The team consisted of 5 different health professionals including the primary physician, and advised the outpatients on an on-call basis for approximately 6 months. The program was offered to 36 out of 38 diabetes outpatients who satisfied the entry criteria, and 14 of those patients (program group) completed the entire program. The average number of professionals who advised each patient was 3.6 ± 1.0. The HbA1c (NGSP ％) significantly decreased, especially body weight (kg) and BMI (kg/m²) remarkably decreased in obese patients. The HbA1c (NGSP ％) significantly decreased in the program group compared with the usual treatment group not participating the program. The feature of the program is that it is targeted at outpatients with a temporal restriction, and can implement cross-sectional care. The program that adopted an outpatient on-call system in order to optimize staffing suggests its feasibility and usefulness.