Interprofessional Team Management: Partnering to Optimize Outcomes in Diabetes

In striving to provide patient-centered, clinically efficacious, cost-effective care to medically complex adults with diabetes, a health care organization enlisted the diverse expertise of an interprofessional team that included a nurse practitioner who collaboratively guided weekly team huddles, directed ongoing coordination of comprehensive care plans, and orchestrated timely access to appropriate care settings and in-home and community resources. Using a pre/posttest design, participants (N = 52) whose complex care was managed by an interprofessional team reported an increase in self-care behaviors, better health-related quality of life, improved physiologic outcomes, and a reduction in use of emergency and acute care services.