The survey also tried to correlate profitability with the number of patient visits. The data were not easy to interpret. In general, it seemed that the small proportion of programs (0.3%, or 17) that had more than 5,000 patient visits a year were the most likely to be making a profit, but even then only 18% were doing so. Of programs with 2,001–5,000 patient visits a year, 10% were making a profit; 48% were operating at a loss, Ms. Austin reported.
“We're trying to [determine] whether it's size or number of visits that makes a difference in terms of profitability. Right now we're having a difficult time figuring it all out, but it looks like nobody is really operating at full profit with no loss. Everyone's operating at some loss, but once you get over 5,000 [patients a year], you're losing less than everyone else.”
Another worrisome trend was a slight downturn in the amount of clinical data collected and reported since 2005, with 12% of programs not collecting any outcome measures.
In 2007, the survey was mailed to 10,865 AADE members. The 30% return rate was a significant increase from the 21% of 9,322 members who responded in 2005. Educators from every state in the union responded, with the greatest numbers from Texas, California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Florida. Ms. Peeples acknowledged that a limitation of the survey was that it was sent only to AADE members.
Most (92%) of the 2007 respondents reported they are currently “providing, supervising, or coordinating” diabetes patient education. A total of 73% described their role as “diabetes educator,” and 28% described it as “diabetes program manager/director/coordinator.”
The survey consisted of 33 questions on program structure, 7 questions on process (interventions, program services, and activity), and 8 questions pertaining to outcomes. A diabetes education program was defined as “any structured, organized delivery of diabetes education occurring in any practice setting.”