Four Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center physicians recently were awarded "Physician Recognition" by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)/American Diabetes Association (ADA) Diabetes Physician Recognition Program for delivering high-quality diabetes care.
The honored physicians are: Mary A. Lathrop, assistant professor of medicine; Chris Y. Fan, assistant professor of medicine; Rena C. DeArment, assistant professor of medicine; and Robert A. Gabbay, associate professor of medicine and director of the diabetes program at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. All have been awarded recognition for three years (beginning February 2004).
"We congratulate these Penn State Diabetes Center physicians who work diligently to bring the highest quality care to their patients," said Robert Aber, interim chair of the Department of Medicine. "Our goal is to treat those with diabetes with the best available therapies to keep them healthy, happy and active, and these physicians exemplify what it means to deliver World Class Care."
The NCQA/ADA Diabetes Physician Recognition Program is a voluntary program for individual physicians or physician groups that provide care to people with diabetes consistent with the comprehensive diabetes care measures within the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS), ADA's Standards of Medical Care and the Diabetes Quality Improvement Project. The program assesses key measures that were carefully defined and tested for their relationship to improved care for people with diabetes, according to the program's Web site.
To receive recognition, the physicians submitted data about patients' eye exams, blood pressure tests, nutrition therapy and patient satisfaction, among others. When people with diabetes receive quality care as outlined by these measures, they are less likely to suffer complications such as heart attacks, stroke, blindness, kidney disease and amputations.
The goal of the Penn State Diabetes Center, a collaboration of scientists and health-care providers at the medical center and at Penn State University Park, is to increase the scientific and medical knowledge needed to eradicate diabetes and help those with diabetes enjoy healthy lives.
Penn State Diabetes Center is piloting a new integrated system - the first of its kind in Pennsylvania and only the second in the nation - to help primary-care physicians to make sure that patients with diabetes are getting all of the recommended screenings and tests.
"Less than 50 percent of those with diabetes have the recommended tests, which include a yearly eye exam, a yearly foot exam, a yearly kidney screening, the A1C blood test and cholesterol tests," Gabbay said. "These tests are important because if we catch problems early, we can do something about them."
The database, modeled after a system at University of Minnesota, allows a primary-care physician to sample the database and pull up a single sheet of paper that shows his or her patient's diabetes-related test results in graphical form. A physician can very quickly assess the patient's results. The database includes a built-in mechanism to alert the physician if a patient is overdue for a recommended test.
For more information about the Diabetes Physician Recognition Program, visit http://www.ncqa.org/dprp. For more information about Penn State Diabetes Center, visit http://www.pennstatediabetescenter.com