TY - JOUR
T1 - Variations in the Delivery of Primary Diabetes Care in Malaysia
T2 - Lessons to Be Learnt and Potential for Improvement
AU - Mustapha, Feisul Idzwan
AU - Aagaard-Hansen, Jens
AU - Lim, Shiang Cheng
AU - Nasir, Nazrila Hairizan
AU - Aris, Tahir
AU - Bjerre-Christensen, Ulla
N1 - © The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2020/4/22
Y1 - 2020/4/22
N2 - Background: The article describes variations in the organization of clinical services for diabetes patients in 10 public primary health clinics in Malaysia with the view to learn from current innovations and improve diabetes service provision.Methods: This study combined the use of secondary data and a qualitative multicase study approach applying observations in 10 randomly selected Ministry of Health (MOH) health clinics in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor and semistructured interviews of the family medicine specialists from the same clinics.Results: Although there are specific MOH guidelines for diabetes care, some clinics had introduced innovations for diabetes care such as the novel 'personalized care', 'one-stop-centre' and utilization of patients' waiting time for health education. Analysis showed that there was room for improvement in terms of task shifting to free precious time of staff with specialized functions, streamlining appointments for various examinations, increasing continuity of consultations with same doctors, and monitoring of performance.Conclusion: We contend that there is a potential for increased effectiveness and efficiency of primary diabetes care in Malaysia without increasing the resources - a potential that may be tapped into by systematic learning from ongoing innovation.
AB - Background: The article describes variations in the organization of clinical services for diabetes patients in 10 public primary health clinics in Malaysia with the view to learn from current innovations and improve diabetes service provision.Methods: This study combined the use of secondary data and a qualitative multicase study approach applying observations in 10 randomly selected Ministry of Health (MOH) health clinics in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor and semistructured interviews of the family medicine specialists from the same clinics.Results: Although there are specific MOH guidelines for diabetes care, some clinics had introduced innovations for diabetes care such as the novel 'personalized care', 'one-stop-centre' and utilization of patients' waiting time for health education. Analysis showed that there was room for improvement in terms of task shifting to free precious time of staff with specialized functions, streamlining appointments for various examinations, increasing continuity of consultations with same doctors, and monitoring of performance.Conclusion: We contend that there is a potential for increased effectiveness and efficiency of primary diabetes care in Malaysia without increasing the resources - a potential that may be tapped into by systematic learning from ongoing innovation.
KW - primary care
KW - disease management
KW - community health centers
KW - practice management
KW - long-term care
U2 - 10.1177/2333392820918744
DO - 10.1177/2333392820918744
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32313820
SN - 2333-3928
VL - 7
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Health services research and managerial epidemiology
JF - Health services research and managerial epidemiology
ER -