Author(s)

Ghahraman Mahmodi¹, Melody Omraninava^1*, Bahman Nikpour¹, Eissa Omidi Qasemabad²

¹Hospital Administration Research Center, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran.
²Health Services Management, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran.

Background and Objectives: The ultimate goal of the health system is to improve the health status of people. To achieve this goal and meet the needs and expectations of people in the field of health, different strategies have been designed, one of which is the family physician. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to evaluate management and performance of the family physician in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diabetes in the Counties of Gilan Province. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, which was carried out descriptively. In this study 320 patients with diabetic records were selected from among 1900 using simple random selection. Results: There is a significant difference between the number of visits, the number of referrals to specialists and the number of tests with the expected rate. In addition, 68.8% of patients were diagnosed by the family physician for the first time. According to comparisons made on the number of referrals, visits and request for blood tests, there was a significant difference between two Counties (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that there is a fundamental weakness in terms of diagnosis, control, care of patients, referral, completion of health records and eventually preventing diabetes complications in the northern villages of Iran. In general, family physician program has relatively good performance in Iran after several years, but has not been able to reach the determined goals and standards.

Family Physician, Diabetes, Health System, Referral System

Mahmodi, G. , Omraninava, M. , Nikpour, B. and Qasemabad, E. (2018) Evaluation of the Management of Family Physicians Health Care Services to Diabetic Patients in Rural Areas of Northern Iran. International Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9, 92-103. doi: 10.4236/ijcm.2018.92010.