Clinical Audit of Diabetes Care in the Bahrain Defence Forces Hospital

Objectives: primary care audits in bahrain have consistently revealed a failure to meet recognisedstandards of delivery of process and outcome measures to patients with diabetes. this study aimed to establish for the first time the quality of diabetes care in a bahraini hospital setting. methods: a retrospective clinical audit was conducted of a random sample of patients attending the diabetes and endocrine center at the bahrain defence forces hospital over a 15-month period which ended in june 2010. the medical records of 287 patients with diabetes were reviewed electronically and manually for process and outcome measures, and a statistical analysis was performed. results: of the patients, 47% were male, with a median age of 54 years, and 5% had type 1 diabetes. measured processes, including haemoglobin a1c, blood pressure, lipids, creatinine and weight, were recorded in over 90% of the patients. smoking (8%) and the patient’s body mass index (19%) were less frequently recorded. screening for complications was low, with retinal screening in 42%, foot inspection in 22% and microalbuminuria in 23% of patients. conclusion: this study shows that the implementation of recognised evidence-based practice continues to pose challenges in routine clinical care. screening levels for the complications of diabetes were low in this hospital diabetes clinic. it is important to implement a systematic approach to diabetes care to improve the quality of care of patients with diabetes which could lead to a lowering of cardiovascular risk and a reduction in healthcare costs in the long term. keywords: diabetes; quality; care;