ADEA Annual Scientific Meeting 2017 - Abstract
Title: Filling the gaps through a multidisciplinary on-call diabetes support service.
Deborah Mihelyi 1, Deborah Gooley 1, Renae Roll 1, Kim Hider 1
Background:
Diabetes Victoria provides a confidential health professional led on-call health advice and support service to Victorians living with, or affected by diabetes.
This service aims to provide timely, accessible information and advice around diabetes management, and also helps support people to navigate the health system.
Aim:
Our study aimed to examine the type of enquiries coming in to the on-call service, and use these findings to improve the on-call service, and inform health information and resource development.
Methods:
An internal audit of the Diabetes Victoria on-call service database was conducted with the data exported from all enquiries to the service over 12months, as part of the organisation’s ongoing quality improvement process. A thematic approach was applied to identify recurrent themes.
Findings:
A total of 2269 people, contacted the Diabetes Victoria on-call service during 2016, 80% via phone, 16% through email and social media, and 4% were 'walk-in' enquires.
Of these, 70% were directed to a Credentialed Diabetes Nurse Educator, 20% to an Accredited Practising Dietitian, and 10% to an Advocacy team.
Most frequent themes identified:
In addition to the caller’s initial enquiry, there were often other, underlying issues that needed to be addressed.
Conclusion:
The audit identified the need to develop resources tailored to specific areas of common concerns, where there is currently a gap.
It also highlighted the diverse and often complex nature of the enquiries requiring our health professionals to use a person centred approach, and have a comprehensive knowledge of diabetes and its management.