Published in The Science of Diabetes Self-Management and Care, August 2019: By using the population health approach, tapping into the quality improvement infrastructure at their respective organizations, and becoming aware of their organizations’ performance of the population level diabetes measures, diabetes care and education specialists can identify and position themselves as the experts who can help improve the system’s diabetes quality measures.
Key points addressed in this paper:
1) Diabetes care and education specialists are essential clinical diabetes specialists and they must be active policy-makers and providers in order to support the population health model.
2) The focus on the Quadruple Aim and the shift away from fee-for-service to value-based care is intended to have a positive impact on a person’s quality of care and satisfaction. It is also creating an opportunity for diabetes care and education specialists to re-evaluate and expand their services to demonstrate their value.
3) Diabetes care and education specialists must stay informed. By using the population health approach, tapping into the quality improvement infrastructure at their respective organizations, and becoming aware of their organizations’ performance relating to population-level diabetes measures, they can identify and position themselves as the experts who can help improve the system’s diabetes quality measures.
4) Diabetes care and education specialists are at a turning point. They have an opportunity to position themselves as diabetes specialists for diabetes management, education, and care delivery.
5) While the term population health may be new to many diabetes care and education specialists, it is something that many are already immersed in and using to show their value to employers and health systems.