| Popis: |
Timely access to diabetes specialty care is often limited by resources, especially within a safety-net health system serving a large under/un-insured and ethnically diverse patient population. Implementation of a diabetes electronic consultation (e-consult) service offers several potential benefits, including timely access to diabetes specialists’ input, improvement in patients’ glycemic control, decreased need for in-person referral or visit (a potential benefit to patients and providers) , and an opportunity to support primary care providers with targeted education. We performed a retrospective electronic medical record review of completed diabetes e-consults within a 3-year period (2018-2021) at a large safety-net health system in Dallas, TX to determine the effectiveness of e-consult service. A total of 277 e-consult encounters were completed for 266 patients (age 52.8±12 years, 65% female, 46% Hispanic, 56% Caucasian, 39% Black, 91% with type 2 diabetes) . The average specialist response time following an e-consult request was 2 days, with recommendations fully or partially implemented for 78% of the e-consults. For the 145 patients with reliable hemoglobin A1c (HgbA1c) data at baseline and within 6 months, the HgbA1c improved from an average of 10.1±2.1% to 9.3±1.8% (paired t-test, p= In conclusion, implementation of diabetes e-consult service improved timely access to diabetes specialty care as well as patients’ glycemic control, and also created an educational opportunity to improve overall diabetes care within a large safety-net health system. Disclosure F.Gunawan: None. S.Ajaz: None. L.Meneghini: Employee; Sanofi. U.Gunasekaran: None. |
