A prospective audit of the impact of additional staff on the care of diabetic patients in a community podiatry service

摘要

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the employment of additional podiatry staff on patients with diabetes attending a community-based podiatry service.MethodsAn audit was conducted to evaluate the intervention of two additional podiatry staff. All patients with diabetes referred to and attending community podiatry services in a specified area in the Republic of Ireland between June 2011 and June 2012 were included. The service was benchmarked against the UK gold standard outlined in the ‘Guidelines on prevention & management of foot problems in Type 2 Diabetes’ by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). Process of care measures addressed were the number of patients with diabetes receiving treatment and the waiting times of patients with diabetes from referral to initial review.ResultsAn increase in the number of patients with diabetes receiving treatment was seen in all risk categories (ranging from low risk to the emergency foot). Waiting times for patients with...