Journal of general internal medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Perceived access problems among patients with diabetes in two public systems of care.
We examined the prevalence of access problems among public clinic patients after participating in trials of automated telephone disease management with nurse follow-up. ⋯ Many of these public sector patients with diabetes reported that they failed to obtain health services because they perceived financial and nonfinancial access problems. Automated telephone disease management calls with telephone nurse follow-up improved patients' access to care. Despite the impact of the intervention, county clinic patients were more likely than VA patients to report access problems in several areas.