1313-P: Comparison of Diabetes Health-Care Quality between Endo ECHO and the Academic Medical Center

Background: Patients receiving diabetes specialty care experience higher quality care, fewer complications and improved survival; however, access to specialists is limited in medically underserved areas. The Endo ECHO program connects specialists at academic medical centers with PCPs through virtual clinics. We report the comparability of quality measures between Endo ECHO patients and those receiving diabetes specialty care.

Methods: Patients with complex diabetes from 10 Endo ECHO clinics in NM completed surveys assessing healthcare quality one year after program enrollment. Patients at the University of New Mexico Diabetes Comprehensive Care Center (DCCC) served as a comparison group and completed the same survey.

Results: Five hundred thirty-three ECHO patients and 139 DCCC patients completed surveys. ECHO patients were much less likely to identify English as their primary language (69% ECHO vs. 91% DCCC, p<0.0001) and reported lower levels of educational attainment (40% ECHO with at least some college vs. 60% DCCC, p<0.0001). DCCC patients were more likely to report a positive overall health status (42% ECHO vs. 68% DCCC, p<0.0001), yet there was no difference in overall concern about health across groups. ECHO patients reported more frequent visits to their usual source of diabetes care (72% ECHO with 4 or more annual visits vs. 58% DCCC, p<0.0001). There were no differences in the frequency of A1C testing or feet checks by a provider; however, more DCCC patients reported regular eye exams (69% ECHO vs. 87% DCCC, p<0.0001) and that their provider had assessed smoking status (70% ECHO vs. 82% DCCC, p<0.0001).

Conclusions: Endo ECHO patients faced greater medical literacy barriers yet reported similar outcomes for several, but not all, diabetes care quality measures as compared to those reported by patients at the DCCC. Endo ECHO may be a suitable alternative to specialty care for patients in medically underserved areas; ongoing evaluation will determine its impact on clinical outcomes.