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- Page navigation anchor for Visit behavior may reflect self-care abilitiesVisit behavior may reflect self-care abilitiesShow More
In their article, Quality of Preventive Care for Diabetes: Effects of Visit Frequency and Competing Demands, Fenton et al. discuss measures of diabetes care as a function of number and type of visit frequency.(1) The authors hypothesize that “infrequent” or “lower priority” outpatient visits will result in decreased diabetes preventive care. The assumption underlying these hypotheses (mine, not stated by the authors) is t...
Competing Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for Understanding competing demands: co-morbidities need to be exploredUnderstanding competing demands: co-morbidities need to be exploredShow More
Investigating how competing demands affect delivery of diabetes preventive services and self-care is a complex undertaking. Three articles in this issue of the Annals address the role of competing demands on diabetes preventive service delivery or self-care. Parchman et. al. used direct observation of patient visits and found that patients presenting for acute versus chronic illnesses less frequently received indicated...
Competing Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for Next steps in transforming diabetes careNext steps in transforming diabetes careShow More
In theory, preventive care for patients with diabetes is so simple – order a blood test or two, vaccinate, look at the feet and refer for retinal exam – it boggles the mind that all patients with diabetes do not routinely receive all such services each year. The very simplicity of the required tasks, however, suggests that system-level barriers rather than inadequate physician education or training underlie the gap betwe...
Competing Interests: None declared.