North Carolina family medicine residency programs' diabetes learning collaborative.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Using a learning collaborative among multiple residency programs is a new concept and has the potential to improve diabetes care beyond the usual quality improvement techniques.
METHODS: This project developed a learning collaborative with six affiliated family medicine residency sites using the Chronic Care Model (CCM) to improve diabetes care according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the American Diabetic Association Physician Recognition Program (PRP) key measure criteria.
RESULTS: Key measures of diabetic care were met or exceeded in 67% of the residency programs. One site fulfilled all PRP criteria. Two other sites exceeded two additional targets, while one site exceeded one target. Baseline and follow-up data were compiled for five sites on the Assessment of Chronic Illness Care survey, testing the implementation of the CCM. Scores started in basic support and improved to the next level of reasonably good support for diabetes care.
CONCLUSIONS: The learning collaborative structured sites to focus on evaluating diabetes care and regularly reporting activities to peers. The learning collaborative resulted in improved diabetes care in practices that had formerly used quality improvement techniques and especially in sites with a history of organizational change and involvement of residents.