Working Together to Manage Diabetes: Development and Testing of a Comprehensive Checklist

To improve diabetes team care by increasing communication and coordination among the many providers on a diabetes team, the NDEP (National Diabetes Education Program) PPOD (Pharmacy, Podiatry, Optometry, Dentistry) Workgroup developed a diabetes checklist to enable more effective communication and coordination among the varied providers on a diabetes team – PPOD professionals and other health care professionals (physicians, diabetes educators, nurses, physician assistants, etc.) and to foster a team care approach. This checklist was based on the ADA standards of care and HEDIS criteria and was distributed to a sample of diabetes care providers via the internet. Recipients were asked to review the checklist and to complete a 17 question online survey about the relevance of the checklist and the likelihood of implementing the checklist in practice. Most respondents agreed the content was appropriate and presented clearly. Forty-six percent responded that they were likely to change their practice to more of a team approach, incorporating other members of the diabetes team, or by referring to other professionals. The checklist was seen useful in actual practice, with many (30%) indicating its potential application in electronic medical record systems.