Study of Diabetes Patients' EMRs Show Frequent Encounters with Doctors Lead to Better Care and Outcomes
Study of Diabetes Patients’ EMRs Show Frequent Encounters with Doctors Lead to Better Care and Outcomes
Having more physician-patient encounters may lead to quicker control of type 2 diabetes measurements and improve outcomes, according to a study funded in part by AHRQ. The article “Encounter Frequency and Serum Glucose Level, Blood Pressure, and Cholesterol Level Control in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus,” published in the September 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, compared the electronic medical records (EMRs) of 26,496 patients who had encounters with their primary care physicians over 1 to 2 weeks versus 3 to 6 months. Defined by the study authors as “any note made in the EMR”, doctor-patient encounters included face-to-face interactions, as well as remote communication between doctor and patient, such as those taking place by telephone. More physician contact improved disease management across the board. The authors caution, however, that increasing patient encounters with providers could increase demand on health care resources. The free abstract of the study is available on the Archives of Internal Medicine’s website. It can be viewed by going to this link: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/171/17/1542.
0 comments :
Post a Comment