Assessing doctors' compliance with guidelines on diabetes management.

Purpose: In 2002 the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) audited doctors' compliance with diabetes clinical practice guidelines in public healthcare institutions and attempted to postulate factors that influenced the degree of conformity. This study aims to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach: A retrospective cross-sectional chart review of diabetes patient records sampled from hospital specialist outpatient clinics (SOCs) and polyclinics was performed. Childhood, gestational and secondary diabetes cases were excluded. The nine audit parameters used were process measures concerning the assessment of HbA1c, weight, blood pressure, urinary protein, serum creatinine, serum lipids, electrocardiography, retina and feet. Age-standardised prevalence rate ratios of parameter adherence were calculated. Of the SOC cases, 89 per cent were analysed. Of the polyclinic cases, 94 per cent were analysed.

Findings: Adherence to ECG and foot assessment parameters was poor among SOC cases, while poor adherence to weight and foot assessment parameters was seen in the polyclinics. There was poorer adherence to blood pressure and ECG parameters in the SOCs, but better adherence was seen for weight assessment. Among the SOC cases, Cluster A fared better than Cluster B in ECG monitoring. In the polyclinics, better adherence was seen in Cluster A for urinary protein, serum creatinine, lipids, ECG, retinal and foot assessment parameters.

Originality/value: Based on pre-existing information on local diabetes care, certain system, physician, patient and guideline factors are postulated to explain clinical practice guideline non-compliance among doctors.