Dynamic assessment of a transition process for patients with diabetes

Introduction

Adolescence can be defined as the period during which all individuals move from childhood to adulthood, including in the healthcare system, creating a need for a healthcare transition process. Children’s of Alabama provides four transition education sessions during clinic visits for adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D). We aimed to assess baseline patient data and patient perspectives of our current transition education process to guide our efforts to improve this process.

Methods

We used a mixed methods design comprised of a quantitative analysis of baseline data in our adolescents with T1D and qualitative analysis of provide and patient perspectives. We queried the electronic medical record to obtain baseline characteristics of adolescent adolescents with T1D seen at our center from January 2022 to May 2022 and sought input via anonymous surveys of adult and pediatric endocrinology attendings, fellows, and nurse practitioners at our institution and of adolescents with T1D who had completed the final education session via an electronic secure database.

Results

Electronic Medical review of adolescents with T1D transitioning to adult care at our center revealed most of our adolescents with T1D had a gap in care of four months or greater between last pediatric visit and first adult visit. Pediatric provider surveys emphasized barriers for adolescents with T1D with appointment scheduling and challenges navigating the adult health care system. Adult surveys emphasized lack of communication with the adult health care team. Adolescents with T1D overall reported transition education prepared them well for adult care, but only 35.3 % had identified an adult provider after completing transition education.

Conclusions

Our findings outline additional areas for improvement in our transition process for adolescents with T1D. Based on feedback from the pediatric team, we are working to initiate transition education by age 16, standardize document discussions around transition, document date of planned transition, and document planned accepting adult provider. We are working to streamline record transfer based on feedback from adult providers. Based on patient feedback and our documented gaps in care, we are working to place referrals for adult care to minimize gaps in diabetes care.