Abstract

Background: Evidence suggests that patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) suffer from a high rate of “clinical inertia” or “recognition of the problem but failure to act.”

Objective: The aim of this study is to quantify the rate of clinical inertia between two models of care: Pharmacist-Managed Diabetes Clinic (PMDC) vs. Usual Medical Care (UMC).

Methods: Patients in a university based medical clinic with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) were analyzed in this retrospective cohort study. Patients were exposed to either PMDC or UMC. The difference in days to intervention in response to suboptimal laboratory values and time to achieve goal hemoglobin A1c (A1c), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was compared in the two models of care.

Results: A total of 113 patients were included in the analysis of this study, 54 patients were in the PMDC and 59 patients were in the UMC group. Median time (days) to intervention for A1c values >7% was 8 days and 9 days in the PMDC and UMC groups, respectively (p>0.05). In patients with baseline A1c values >8%, median time to achieving A1c Conclusions: Rates of clinical inertia, defined as time to intervention of suboptimal clinical values, did not differ significantly between patients enrolled in a PMDC compared to patients with UMC with respect to A1c, SBP and LDL. Participation in PMDC, however, was associated with achieving goal A1c, SBP, and LDL levels sooner compared to UMC.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2013

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Pharmacy Practice, v. 11, no. 4, p. 203-210.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Funding Information

This work was supported by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists Research Foundation.

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