EMR Can Improve Diabetes Care

EMRs can help improve diabetes care by making care coordination of such patients more efficient, according to a study reported in iHealthBeat.

The federally-funded study, which was done by the Western New York Beacon Community, went to one of 17 Beacon Communities funded by ONCHIT, which has handed out $250.3 million in total grants.

In this case, the Beacon Community is a partnership between HealtheLink, Catholic Medical Partners and P2 Collaborative of Western New York. The partnership’s $16.1 million is the largest grant received by any of the 17 Beacon Communities.

To study the impact of EMRs on diabetes care, the partners looked at about 40,000 patients, and 344 primary care physicians working in 98 practices.

To implement the study, participants created diabetes registries that tracked lab tests and results, created personalized reminders and guidance for patients, and generated quarterly reports for physicians underscoring areas where they could cut costs and improve diabetic care, iHealthBeat said.

But the diabetic registry was just the beginning. The Beacon project also implemented preventive telemonitoring to avoid excess emergency department visits and hospital readmissions; medication therapy tools to alert doctors — in real time — of changes ED doctors make medication regiments, and patient portals giving patients access to prescription refills, appointment requests and lab results.

At the end of the study, researchers polled the 57 practices that consistently used the registries, and found that the number of diabetics with uncontrolled sugars levels fell 4 percent, with some practices seeing as much as a 10 percent improvement. Researchers calculated that if project guidelines were followed by 20 percent of patients with diabetes and their doctors in Western New York, savings could be $18 million.

This result echoes results of other studies. For example, last year researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College concluded that when a group of community-based doctors moved to EMRs , they provided better care, particularly in managing chlamydia, diabetes, colorectal cancer and breast cancer.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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