Abstract:
Type II diabetes is a serious condition that continues to affect the lives of millions of individuals
each year. By the year 2040, an estimated 600 million people worldwide will have type II
diabetes. This disease is first diagnosed on millions of patients in their mid-30s through their
early 40s. Finding ways to control diabetes early is essential in maintaining health for the
diabetic patient (Kahn, Cooper & Del Prado, 2014). The purpose of this study was to describe
the medical visits that could provide a patient with options to lower his or her hemoglobin A1C
score the most. Some consequences type II diabetics with hemoglobin A1C scores greater than
seven percent face are: higher incidences of retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and even
cardiac complications (Shi, Ye, Lu, Wu, Sharma, Thomason & Fonseca, 2013). This study
implemented a chart review of hemoglobin A1C scores for patients participating in different
medical visit types throughout six months. The most pertinent finding during the literature
review expanded on the effect of shared medical visits on type II diabetes patient compliance.
Shared medical visits included a primary provider and a supplemental medical team member
helping the patient; this practice has been around since 1996 (Ridge, 2012). In this study, a t-test
was conducted utilizing the mean scores and differences of the two types of medical visits. The
findings described that patients that participated in shared medical visits that included a primary
provider with the supplement of a diabetic educator nurse had lower hemoglobin A1C scores
after six months.
