Health services strive to be efficient, timely, equitable, accessible, safe & effective with care based on best practice. However, lack of staff & the increasing demand for a service often drive the decision of how a service is delivered. These issues have led to a Review of our current model of care (MoC) for women with gestational diabetes (GDM).Our aim was to conduct a survey of selected metropolitan Diabetes Centres & to compare the MoCs used to provide education & care to women with GDM.A 10 question multiple choice & short answer survey tool was developed. Twelve public hospital Diabetes Centres known to provide education services to women with GDM were contacted by phone and invited to participate in a telephone survey. A diabetes educator (DE) read the survey questions to the participating DE & transcribed the verbal responses which were entered into a database. Results are descriptive & analysis univariate.All 12 Centres contacted completed the survey. Data are presented for 13 Centres including our own. Participating centres: NSW 5, VIC 2, TAS 1, ACT 1, NT 1, QLD 1, SA 1, WA 1. Number of referrals per week varied between centres: 1-5 (15%), 6-10 (39%), 11-14 (23%),≥ 15 (23%). All (100%) reported an access time to first contact (a group session) of 1-5 days.Estimated total hours of education by DE: 0 (8%), 1-3 (77%), 4 - 5 (7%), ≥ 6 (8%). Estimated dietitian hours: ≤ 1 hour (23%), & ≥ 1hour (77%) based on the MoC. Data show that following the initial group session MoCs varied widely for mode of education, management, participating disciplines & role responsibilities.
In summary, all Centres use the same 1-5 day standard to achieve efficient, timely & equitable access to education. This is achieved by conducting a weekly group session. Further evaluation is needed to determine MoC effectiveness for safe, best practice.