Cover: Is the Quality of Diabetes Care Better in a Diabetes Clinic or in a General Medicine Clinic?

Is the Quality of Diabetes Care Better in a Diabetes Clinic or in a General Medicine Clinic?

Published in: Diabetes Care, v. 20, no. 4, Apr. 1997, p. 472-475

Posted on RAND.org on January 01, 1997

by Marion Ho, Michael Marger, Jenna Beart, Ian Yip, Paul G. Shekelle

The objective of this study was to was to compare the quality of ambulatory diabetes care delivered by physicians in the diabetes clinic versus the general medicine clinic of a university-affiliated Veterans Administration medical center. The authors concluded that patients cared for by physicians in the diabetes clinic receive better quality of diabetes care than do patients cared for by physicians in the general medical clinic. If patient care is to be shifted from specialists to generalists, additional attention needs to be paid to ensure that generalists have the knowledge and system resources necessary to deliver an acceptable quality of diabetes care.

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