Improving the quality of care for chronic diseases is an important issue for most health care systems in industrialized nations. One widely adopted approach is the Chronic Care Model (CCM), which was first developed in the late 1990s. In this article we present the results from two large surveys in the United States and Germany that report patients' experiences in different models of patient-centered diabetes care, compared to the experiences of patients who received routine diabetes care in the same systems. The study populations were enrolled in either Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania or Barmer, a German sickness fund that provides medical insurance nationwide. Our findings suggest that patients with type 2 diabetes who were enrolled in the care models that exhibited key features of the CCM were more likely to receive care that was patient-centered, high quality, and collaborative, compared to patients who received routine care. This study demonstrates that quality improvement can be realized through the application of the Chronic Care Model, regardless of the setting or distinct characteristics of the program.
Keywords: Chronic Care; International/global health studies; Organization and Delivery of Care; Quality Of Care.
Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.