The ability of primary healthcare clinics to provide quality diabetes care: An audit

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The ability of primary healthcare clinics to provide quality diabetes care: An audit
 
Creator Webb, Elizabeth M. Rheeder, Paul Wolvaardt, Jacqueline E.
 
Subject — diabetes; primary care; quality; audit; clinic
Description Background: In South Africa, much of diabetes care takes place at primary healthcare (PHC) facilities where screening for diabetic complications is often low. Clinics require access to equipment, resources and a functional health system to do effective screening, but what is unknown is whether these components are in place.Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the capacity of primary care clinics in one district to provide quality diabetes care.Setting: This study was conducted at the Tshwane district in South Africa.Methods: An audit was done in 12 PHC clinics. A self-developed audit tool based on national and clinical guidelines was developed and completed using observation and interviewing the clinic manager and pharmacist or pharmacy assistant.Results: Scales, height rods, glucometers and blood pressure machines were available. Monofilaments were unknown and calibration of equipment was rare. The Essential Drug List was the only guideline consistently available. All sites reported consistent access to medication, glucose strips and urine dipsticks. All sites made use of the chronic disease register, and only 25% used an appointment system. No diabetes-specific structured care form was in use. All facilities had registered and enrolled nurses and access to doctors. Availability of educational material was generally poor.Conclusion: The capacity to deliver quality care is compromised by the poor availability of guidelines, educational material and the absence of monofilaments. These are modifiable risk factors that could be resolved by the clinic managers and staff development educators. However, patient records and health information systems need attention at policy level.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor This study was funded by the Society for Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Africa (SEMDSA), the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) and research funds from the University of Pretoria.
Date 2019-10-17
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Cross-sectional as part of a cluster randomised trial
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v11i1.2094
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 11, No 1 (2019); 6 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/2094/3440 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/2094/3439 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/2094/3441 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/2094/3438
 
Coverage — — PHC clinics
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Elizabeth M. Webb, Paul Rheeder, Jacqueline E. Wolvaardt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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