Can Tailored Patient Letters Improve The Quality Of Diabetic Patient Care?

Can Tailored Patient Letters Improve The Quality Of Diabetic Patient Care?"

The purpose of this study is to determine if tailored letters sent to diabetic patients will improve care of diabetes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Diabetes Mellitus
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Tailored letter

Detailed Description

Diabetes care in the US is less than optimal. Some authors have found that targeted patient letters are also an effective tool to improve outcomes when they are part of a comprehensive disease management plan. Local patient satisfaction surveys had revealed that many patients had sub-optimal understanding of diabetes measures and of the importance of controlling these measures to reduce diabetic complications. We wondered if tailored patient letters and enclosed lab orders when due might increase patient awareness of diabetes measures and increase patient engagement.We hypothesized that the addition of targeted patient letters with enclosed lab orders to an ongoing performance improvement program would further improve diabetes care.

We conducted a randomized controlled study of tailored patient letters and diabetes lab orders at our two resident-based clinics.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 467
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, 18510
      • Scranton-Temple Health Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All active patients age 18 to 75 years with a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus were eligible.
• An active patient was defined as one having an ICD-9 code on the active problem list identifying the patient as diabetic, and a progress note in the EMR associated with an office visit within the prior 12 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Tailored letter; Patients in the tailored letter group received by mail a tailored letter detailing their diabetes measures, together with enclosed orders for lab tests when due, and reminder of or scheduling for an office appointment.	Other: Tailored letter
Active Comparator: Usual Care; Patients in the usual care group were part of a practice wide quality improvement process.	Other: Tailored letter

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Diabetes summary quality measure	4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Scranton-Temple Residency Program
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: John R Guzek, MD, Scranton-Temple Residency Program

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 1, 2009
• Study Completion (Actual): July 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 24, 2009
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 24, 2009
• First Posted (Estimate): September 25, 2009

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): September 25, 2009
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 24, 2009
• Last Verified: September 1, 2009

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus targeted mailing
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Glucose Metabolism Disorders; Metabolic Diseases; Endocrine System Diseases; Diabetes Mellitus
• Other Study ID Numbers: STRP001