Health care homes: lessons from the Diabetes Care Project

ne of the biggest health care challenges in Australia is ensuring that people with chronic Odiseases receive the care they need in a high quality and sustainable way. Today, one-third of the population — about 7 million people — have one or more chronic conditions, accounting for 85% of the total burden of disease, 90% of all deaths, 40% of general practitioner visits and 60% of disease-allocated health expenditure. As the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission noted in 2009, these patients often have great difficulty accessing appropriate care and “end up literally ricocheting between multiple specialists and hospitals, not getting access to community support services, and having endless diagnostic tests as each health professional works on a particular ‘body part,’ rather than treating the whole person”.