The impact of a staged management approach to diabetes foot care in the Louisiana public hospital system.

By the beginning of 1999, a Disease Management Initiative (DMI), consisting of targeted goals for the medical management of diabetes, had been established at all Louisiana State public hospitals. Concurrently, a regional Diabetes Foot Program (DFP) utilizing a staged management approach to foot problems was established in Baton Rouge. This study compares annual rates of hospitalization for diabetes-related foot problems and diabetes-related lower extremity amputations in diabetes patients treated for foot ulceration at the Louisiana public hospitals before and after implementation of DMI and the DFP.