Loading...
Increasing Annual Diabetic Foot Exams in a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center
Swanson, Elizabeth Grace
Swanson, Elizabeth Grace
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
In the United States more than 34 million people have diabetes and it is the seventh leading cause of death. Twenty-eight percent of persons with diabetes will go on to develop diabetic peripheral neuropathy and 50% will develop a foot ulcer in their lifetime. The American Diabetes Association recommends comprehensive foot exams at the time of diagnosis and annually, yet in 2015 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found only 71.6% of persons with diabetes received a comprehensive foot exam from a primary care provider. At an urban federally qualified healthcare center an ongoing quality improvement project is underway to increase the percentage of comprehensive foot exams for diabetic patients in each of 8 primary care clinics. The purpose of this project was to increase the percentage of comprehensive foot exams of diabetics at a second primary clinic. Barriers were identified and education and rooming protocols were implemented. After collection of pre-intervention data, a two-month implementation period took place using the Plan-Do-Study-Act method to increase the number of comprehensive foot exams completed and documented by primary care providers. Post-intervention data was collected and analyzed in order to determine if the overall percentage of comprehensive foot exams had increased to a benchmark of 50% or more. After implementation a large increase was observed in annual comprehensive foot exams (44% to 52%) and heighten awareness for the need of these exams. This increase was attributed to education regarding American Diabetes Association recommended guidelines, informal discussions regarding individualized clinic barriers and facilitators, and changes made to rooming protocol for diabetic patients.
Description
Date
2020-01-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Kansas
Collections
Archive Status
This item contains archived web content.
Files
Swanson_ku_0099D_17500_DATA_1.pdf
Adobe PDF, 822.75 KB
- Embargoed until 2170-05-31
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Nursing, Medicine, Endocrinology, diabetes, diabetic foot ulcers, foot exams, guidelines, primary care, type 2 diabetes