Improving Diabetic Outcomes Through A Prevention Plan

Managing diabetes needs continuum of care to improve the health of the population, reduce per capita costs of care and improve the experience of care. Continuum of care is defined as a care system that guides and tracks the clients through a myriad of health services at all levels, stages and intensity of care (HIMSS.com, 2015). The provisions of Title II-Subtitle E provide new options for long-term services and support. The provision of community first choice allows the lower income diabetes patients to have access to long-term healthcare at an affordable cost (Obamacarefacts.com, 2013). Empowered by HIT, nurses can find community resources, develop patient

Understanding that diabetes has reached epidemic proportions globally, the ADA has set up a yearly “wake up call” event that hopes to reach as many individuals in the workplace, homes, clinics, and everywhere in America and have them take the Association’s 60 second survey called the “Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test” ("American Diabetes Association Alert Day," 2017). This event is held every year on the last Tuesday of March, and is called the “American Diabetes Association Alert Day” and all companies and organizations that want to make a difference in this diabetes epidemic can definitely make a difference by sharing via social media, email, digital banners, posters, risk test handouts, and educational resources provided on the ADA’s website. This event focuses on awareness, as prediabetes is a condition that can be reversed with weight loss, active lifestyle, healthy food choices, healthier lifestyle modifications and lastly medications regimen ("American Diabetes Association Alert Day," 2017). As nurses, it is imperative to become involved with associations like the ADA to assist communities with education, screenings measures, and

Diabetes is a serious medical condition that can also be a risk factor for the development of many different diseases and conditions including dementia, heart disease, and CVA. Thus, effective management of diabetes is very important. Patient compliance can be difficult to achieve if the person affected with diabetes is not educated about the illness or treatment, has not fully accepted the diagnosis or its severity, will not change habits or believes that the prescribed treatment regime is too difficult or ineffective, has cultural beliefs conflicting with the treatment regime, experiences stressful events, lacks social support, or suffers from psychiatric issues unrelated to diabetes (Gerard, Griffin, & Fitzpatrick, 2010). As one may expect, adequate education programs are essential tools when dealing with diabetics. Solid education will provide the patient with information as well as teaching the necessary skills to manage the disorder. The primary focus of any diabetes education program must be to empower patients as a part of the multidisciplinary team. This team should be focused at integrating diabetes into the lives of the patients and this focus should be based on the decisions made by the patient, otherwise the treatment plan can be looked on as forced (Gerald et al., 2010). Every patient stricken with diabetes has the right to benefit from an education program of this type. First, basic education and facts should be administered directly following the diagnosis of

The rate of diabetes in the United States is one of the highest compared to other developed countries. An estimate of 9.3% of the population have diabetes, of those with diabetes 27.8% have yet to be diagnosed (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014). This means that approximately 8.1 million people are currently living with diabetes, but are unaware of it. As of 2012, 12.3% of people with diabetes were 20 years old or older, the largest population diagnosed with diabetes were adults 65 years old or older. 25.9% of this population lives with diabetes (CDC, 2014). On a national level, the CDC have launched initiatives that focus on prevention and disease management. The National Diabetes Prevention Program is an example of one such initiative. This program focuses on lifestyle changes,

The patient centered medical homes (“PCMH”) approach “focuses on keeping people well, managing chronic conditions like diabetes or asthma, and proactively meeting the needs of patients.” According to the Arkansas Department of Health, chronic diseases like cancer heart disease or diabetes affect approximately over fifty percent of adult Arkansans. Yet chronic diseases are often preventable. The high rate of chronic diseases can partly be attributed health insurance coverage—“when people don’t have health insurance they tend to avoid seeing doctors. People

Individuals that have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are cared for by a variety of people like podiatrist, district nurses, DSNs, GPs, and practice nurses. Good communication between these professionals and the person with type 2 diabetes can lead to better insight into the individual’s life, therefore helping to plan and provide the best care for that person. This can reduce repetition, improve quality of care for people with diabetes type 2 and

In some areas of population health, technology in enhanced patient information is utilized to perform risk stratification to identify the high risk patients. These patient’s often have uncontrolled BP, diabetes with an HgbA1c over 9, COPD, etc. Once identified as high risk or potential high risk, these patients receive additional care or patient outreach to help manage their condition. Some organizations employee RN Health Coaches and Care Coordination teams to help these patients and identify gaps in care. The primary care physician assumes care of the patient along with striving for the patient to become active in their overall health thereby keeping them out of the hospital (Sanford, 2013). One enhanced area of population management is the PCMH model. PCMH practices increase patient’s engagement in shared decision making while providing compensation for care coordination, care management and medical consultation outside of traditional face-to-face visits (Berryman, Palmer, Kohl &Parham, 2013). A patient centered approach pushes for changes not only in the delivery of medicine but in traditional encounters. In addition, PCMH encourages increased access to the patient’s primary care physicians and improved patient satisfaction scores. PCMH and population health encourages providers to increase after hours care to decrease emergency department visits and/or hospitalizations. Thereby reducing cost and improving the patient’s

Diabetes is a chronic illness that requires continuous medical care and patient self-management education to prevent acute complications and to reduce the risk of long-term complications[ ].

The setting is a community health center at the St. Joseph Health Center in Jamaica Queens, New York. This is a community health center in a low income area of New York. The center deals with all types of patients from expectant mothers to the elderly. They offer a range of services for low income families and individuals without insurance. The doctors are volunteers, and the staff is committed to disease prevention and awareness. They periodically arrange a health fair to reach out to patients who may otherwise not see a physician for the entire year.

The conclusions of the study state that the CRM training was instrumental in improving the diabetes care process and the patient outcomes. The number of patients who met the recommended levels for blood pressure, amputation risk, body weight, and other factors improved after receiving care from the CRM trained staff. Further benefits to the clinic include improved organization of diabetes care team, decreased patient visit time, and shorter orientation periods for new staff: all very important cost-saving measures for the severely under-funded public health sector. Although follow-up training is important to the continued success, the improvements from this training are viewed as significant to this

Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Despite advances in medical technology, treatments, and diagnoses, uncontrolled diabetes continues to rise in the United States (US) (American Diabetes Association [ADA], 2016). Between 2012-2014, 33.9 % of the US population were diagnosed with prediabetes (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016). According to the ADA (2016) in 2010 18.8 million of the population was diagnosed with diabetes, 7 million were undiagnosed, compared to 2012 where the numbers continued to increase to 29.1 million. Out of the 29.1 million individuals affected with

My teaching on primary prevention of type II diabetes adheres to HP2020 objectives D-1 to D-16 on diabetes, specifically objective D-1 that deals with reducing the annual number of new cases of diagnosed diabetes in the population. (Target is a 10% improvement from the baseline of 8.0 new cases of diabetes per 1,000 population aged 18 to 84 years occurred in the past 12 months to the target of 7.2 new cases per 1,000 population aged 18 to 84 years). Education on the preventive measures needed to be taken by an at-risk population tackles this issue of reducing the annual number of cases.

Diabetes is associated with wide range of complications such as chronic renal failure, blindness, amputations, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and neuropathy (Alotabi, A., et al., 2016). There is no known cure for diabetes, but the disease can be controlled through health management that includes multiple perspectives of care such as medications, blood glucose monitoring, diet, nutrition, screening for long-term complications and regular physical activity (Alotabi, A., et al., 2016). Managing diabetes may be complicated and requires the knowledge and skills of both healthcare providers and the clients. Studies have shown that to prevent or delay diabetic complications due to diabetes, counseling and other lifestyle interventions are the effective therapy. Even with many policies set up for diabetes, 8.1 million Americans are undiagnosed with diabetes mellitus, and approximately 86 million Americans ages 20 and older have blood glucose levels that considerably increase their risk of developing Diabetes Mellitus in the next several years (CDC, 2015). For diabetes care to be successful there needs to be a good understanding of the disease and management by both patients and healthcare providers,

Segal, Leach, May, and Turnbull (2013) noted that outpatient best-practice diabetes care can reduce the burden of diabetes and associated health care costs. However, diabetes management within the outpatient setting is complex and time consuming, leaving both healthcare providers and patients frustrated with the inability to coordinate, manage care and improve outcomes for this patient population (Ernst, 2014). With this in mind, a team care approach utilizing APRNs reduces this health care delivery burden, and improves education, management and care coordination in the outpatient setting (CDC, 2013).

Health care organizations and communities must work together to support diabetes care programs. Addressing health care issues, such as diabetes, is challenging for health care systems to achieve without the support of the community. “The Building Community Supports for Diabetes Care (BCS) program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Diabetes Initiative required that projects build community supports for diabetes care through clinic-community partnerships” (Brownson, O’Toole, Shetty, & Fisher, 2007, p. 210). The BCS project’s demonstrates community leadership