Continuous Quality Improvement for Diabetes

Continuous Quality Improvement for Diabetes: Unique Care Delivery Design's Effect on Quality of Care and Utilization of Resources

The purpose of this study is to compare health care delivery outcomes and costs achieved by two different approaches to health care delivery. The investigators will compare health outcomes for groups of adult patents with diabetes. One group will be managed by our traditional approach to diabetes care. The second group's care delivery is structured according to a design consistent with the Chronic Care Model (CCM).

The study is comparing the effect of an intervention targeting a subset of the diabetic patients within a primary care practice on the resource utilization of resources and disease outcomes on the entire population of patients with diabetes in that practice. The effect will also be compared across the entire panel of patients assigned to the physicians in the 2 arms of the study.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Primary care physicians practicing in a designated site with > 200 patients assigned to their panel who have been diagnosed with diabetes

Exclusion Criteria:

• Refusal to give informed consent