From early 2007 through early 2009, SNI worked with 39 primary care improvement teams from 11 public hospital systems to improve chronic illness care for people with diabetes.
SEED involved four regional learning collaborative programs, leadership development for the spread of chronic care improvements, and cash grants and consultancy services for adoption and spread of electronic disease registries. 39 clinic staff teams in 29 clinic sites worked hard to test and implement changes over the two year period, leading to impressive results for both improved processes of care and, most importantly, improvements in the health status of patients tracked in the program.
SEED activities focused program work on three components of the Chronic Care Model, those linked most closely to improvement in blood sugar levels in people with diabetes:
1)Clinical Information Systems
2)Delivery System Design
3)Self-Management Support
The average blood sugar level (per HbA1c test) for the first 3,000 patients tracked in the SEED program starting in April 2007 showed improvement at the one year mark, and these clinics continued this trend of improvement through the end of 2008. The 2008 clinic teams also were able to show improved blood sugar levels as of the end of 2008 for their additional groups of patients. Many other clinical and care process measures have shown significant improvement in each regional clinic cohort across both years’ efforts.
Through these gains, the SEED program has improved the lives of Californians with diabetes, as well as achieved the spread of expertise in clinical practice improvement methodology in California’s public hospital systems.
This work was made possible by the California HealthCare Foundation, and through SNI’s partnership with Kaiser Permanente.
Contact: Hunter Gatewood, MSW