Evaluation of Continuity of Care at a Health Service Organization

Diabetes Mellitus Clinical Trial

Official title: The Evaluation of the Continuity of Care at the Group Health Centre, A Unique Multi-Specialty, Multi-Disciplinary Health Service Organization

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

This project was conducted with patients at a multi-disciplinary, multi-specialty health services organization serving 44,000 rostered patients in Northern Ontario. It investigated continuity of care for patients with diabetes in the areas of barriers and potential solutions to, and correlates of continuity; and variability in costs associated with continuity of care and patient outcomes.

Clinical Trial Description

Continuity of care is a concept that has been garnering increased attention in the last few years. There have been multiple methods proposed by researchers for measuring continuity of care, most of which are based on proportions or ratios of visits to the same health care provider or centre. While a consistent method for measuring continuity of care is lacking, increased continuity of care using various definitions and measurement tools has been related to better well being, lower health care costs, better glucose control, and higher satisfaction but has also not been found to improve health outcomes in other scenarios. Whether a patient is better served by high sequential access to one provider or any provider within the same system or management team is controversial. Finally, patients’ perceptions of continuity of care have not been generally evaluated or correlated with current measurement methods. This project was conducted with patients at the Group Health Centre in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, a multi-disciplinary, multi-specialty health services organization serving 44,000 rostered patients ;

Study Design

Observational Model: Defined Population, Time Perspective: Cross-Sectional

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Diabetes Mellitus

• NCT number: NCT00182286
• Study type: Observational
• Source: McMaster University
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 1999
• Completion date: July 2001