Diabetic Foot Health Education Quality Improvement Project

Diabetic foot health is an important facet of overall health in diabetic patients. Diabetes can result in many different diseases and often patients require extensive education from physicians and other health care providers. The purpose of this project was to develop a standardized educational pamphlet on diabetic foot help to insure complete but efficient education in the hopes to increase the number of patients who receive education. For two weeks I surveyed the clinic and counted the number of diabetic patients present for an annual well visit or six month checkup who were diabetic and if they received foot education. Then after development of an education brochure to enhance patient education I repeated the process. From the pre-enhancement phase to the enhancement phase I saw an increase in the percent of diabetic patients that received diabetic foot health education during their visit. Many patients benefited from diabetic foot health education but the benefit was not further quantifiable in this setting, as patients were not tested on education understanding and retention. Moving forward I would consider using a measurement to determine effectiveness of education implementation to quantify the quality improvement provided by the project. Patient education has proven importance in diabetic patient health, and while a higher number of patients were educated with an outlined education program, the patient benefit cannot accurately be determined without assessing education efficacy.