The Swedish National Survey of the Quality and Organization of Diabetes Care in Primary Healthcare—Swed-QOP
Received 1 December 2009; received in revised form 5 March 2010; accepted 11 March 2010. published online 03 May 2010.
Abstract
Aim
To describe the quality and organization of diabetes care in primary healthcare in Sweden regarding resources and ways of working.
Method
A questionnaire was used to collect data from all 921 primary healthcare centres (PHCCs) in Sweden. Of these, 74.3% (n=684) responded to the questionnaire covering list size of the PHCCs, number of diabetic patients, personnel resources and ways of working.
Results
The median list size reported from the PHCCs was 9,000 patients, 294 of whom were diabetic patients. The majority (72%) of PHCCs had diabetes-responsible general practitioners (GPs) and almost all (97%) had diabetes specialist nurses (DSNs) with some degree of postgraduate education in diabetes. The PHCCs reported that they used regional/local diabetes guidelines (93%), were engaged in call-recall diabetic reviews by GP(s) (66%) and DSN(s) (89%), checked that patients had participated in the reviews by GP(s) (69%) and DSN(s) (78%), arranged group education programmes (23%) and reported data to a National Diabetes Register (82%).
Conclusions
The presence of diabetes-responsible GP(s) and DSN(s) who use guidelines may contribute to good and equal quality of care. It is, however, necessary to improve the call-recall system and there is an urgent need for all diabetic patients to receive patient education.
ABSTRACT