While team-based care as a means of extending primary care may have the support of primary care providers, it still faces significant infrastructural and efficiency barriers, according to research published in the British Medical Journal of Quality and Safety.
Researchers implemented a team-based intervention to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in patients with diabetes and heart disease, using nurses to follow an established protocol for adjusting LDL-reducing medications for individual patients.
Approximately 50 percent of patients completed the intervention program, and 52 percent of those patients achieved predetermined cholesterol-reduction targets.
While primary care physician acceptance of the program was high, the administrative effort required to identify, enroll and follow up with patients eligible for team-based care programs highlighted the need for infrastructural change to improve efficiency for team-based programs. Researchers noted finding a way to accommodate team-based care in an efficient and effective manner must be addressed for successful extension of primary care.
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