Pilot study to validate a standard operating procedure for providing health education to diabetic patients

The lack of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to provide health education to patients with diabetes means that this service is provided in a heterogeneous, isolated and intermittent manner, thus limiting quality.

To validate a SOP to provide health education to diabetic patients using Delphi methodology and determining its efficacy in clinical practice by performing a pilot study.

The SOP was designed from a theoretical analysis of the available literature; a participatory brainstorming technique was used to define the processes included in the SOP. The research was carried out at the Comprehensive Pharmaceutical Care Polyclinic of a Mexican Institute of Health Sciences, from August 2017 to March 2020. The pilot test was carried out on 15 outpatients with diabetes type 1 and 2. The validation was carried out by a panel of experts using Delphi methodology, the consensus among the experts was estimated by determining Kendall's coefficient of concordance. The practice clinical efficacy of the SOP was determined by a pilot study in 15 diabetic patients using process indicators.

The SOP was structured in nine sections with the process approach described in the ISO 9001:2008 standards. The criteria issued by the experts relating to content, records and data extraction tools allowed improvement of the SOP. The pilot test showed that health education, following the SOP, improved metabolic control, level of knowledge, therapeutic adherence and the attitudes of more than 80% of patients.

The SOP designed and validated by experts was effective in educating patients with diabetes due to the high impact achieved with the intervention and incorporates indicators to guarantee the quality of the health service provided.