Coordinated Care for Diabetes
Lourdes Health System offers a diabetes-education program, open to all. Participating in the program can be extremely helpful for patients, and Lourdes urges individuals who have diabetes, or who are at high risk for diabetes, to enroll. This effective, well-designed series looks at managing diabetes, and seeks to simplify and explain this widespread health challenge.
A chronic condition like diabetes doesn't just go away, at least not without consistent, organized care. Nor can it be limited or controlled in its effects without a committed daily effort by the patient to follow the guidance of his or her team of healthcare providers. For these reasons, diabetes patients should never bounce between multiple or sequential healthcare providers who are not aware of each other's roles and not communicating with one another.
Disease management and managed care around diabetes requires appropriate referrals, coordination of medication, essential testing and routine examination, and good communication between healthcare providers and insurers. It also means that all providers understand and use nationally accepted guidelines and standards for care. Primary care physicians need to be informed of the results of visits with specialists and vice versa. And patient reports need to be transmitted efficiently.
Lourdes Health System and its practitioners in family medicine, internal medicine, endocrinology, cardiovascular services, and a range of other areas understand these needs and work to make care of diabetic patients highly coordinated. Lourdes is also increasing investment in electronic communications and medical records to support this goal.
