Implementing quality indicators for diabetes and hypertension in family medicine in Slovenia

Abstract

Abstract Introduction A new form of family practices was introduced in 2011 through a pilot project introducing nurse practitioners as members of team and determining a set of quality indicators. The aim of this article was to assess the quality of diabetes and hypertension management. Methods We included all family medicine practices that were participating in the project in December 2015 (N=584). The following data were extracted from automatic electronic reports on quality indicators: gender and specialisation of the family physician, status (public servant/self-contracted), duration of participation in the project, region of Slovenia, the number of inhabitants covered by a family medicine practice, the name of IT provider, and levels of selected quality indicators. Results Out of 584 family medicine practices that were included in this project at the end of 2015, 568 (97.3%) had complete data and could be included in this analysis. The highest values were observed for structure quality indicator (list of diabetics) and the lowest for process and outcome quality indicators. The values of the selected quality indicators were independently associated with the duration of participation in the project, some regions of Slovenia where practices were located, and some IT providers of the practices. Conclusion First, the analysis of data on quality indicators for diabetes and hypertension in this primary care project pointed out the problems which are currently preventing higher quality of chronic patient management at the primary health care level.