Does having a personal physician improve quality of care in diabetes?

Purpose: although having a continuous relationship with a physician is a defining feature of primary care,few studies have evaluated the effect of this on chronic disease management. this aim of this study was to examine whether having a regular physician is associated with improvements in reaching treatment goals for patients with diabetes. methods: through the use of a diabetes registry,patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus for a minimum of 6 months cared for in a large,single academic family medicine practice were compared based on whether they had a regular physician or not. the 2 groups were compared in the frequency in which they achieved goals for management of glycated hemoglobin,blood pressure,low-density lipoprotein cholesterol,and other aspects of diabetes care. results: patients with a regular provider were slightly older than those without a provider (57.5 years vs. 50.9 years; p = .002),but the gender distribution and percent who were smokers was the same. in assessing diabetes quality measures,patients with a regular provider had lower average levels of glycated hemoglobin (7.70 vs 8.53; p = .01),but no difference was noted in the percentage achieving a goal of ≤7.0. no differences were noted between the groups in either the average systolic or diastolic blood pressures or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or in the percentages of patients achieving recognized goals for these measures. when examining other preventive services,patients with a regular provider were more likely to receive an influenza immunization within the last year (51.8% vs 35.6%; p = .02) but no more likely to receive a pneumococcal vaccine or take an aspirin each day. conclusion: this study suggests that there are few benefits for patients with diabetes in having an established regular provider over having a regular place of service.