Lipid Management in a Diabetes Specialty Clinic: The Process of Increasing Lipid Collection

The purpose of this quality improvement project was to decrease the study population's overall low-density lipoprotein by implementing multiple interventions targeted to increase the collection rate of yearly lipid profiles at a specific clinic. These interventions were performed in accordance with the American Diabetes Association's practice recommendations for dyslipidemia, which include providing patients with lipid education, yearly screening, and medical management. The barriers to obtaining a fasting lipid panel at least every 12 months include patients' missing appointments, patients' rescheduling appointments, patients not fasting, or outside providers not responding to requests for lab results. Using interventions such as reviewing a patient's chart, ordering or requesting a lipid panel, and calling a patient prior to the scheduled appointment, the number of days past 12 months decreased from 176.9 days to 68.37 days. This article describes the development of the quality improvement protocol, the intervention implementation, the project results, and finally, a discussion of findings.