Longitudinal Medical Student Collaborative Care in Primary Care Patients With Type 2 Diabetes
Peer-Reviewed Reports in Medical Education Research (PRIMER) from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine journals reported on successes in the treatment and care for patients with type 2 diabetes through CommunityHealth’s student run clinics with The Education-Centered Medical Home (ECMH) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Director of Clinical Services, Emily Hendel, was featured in the study with quality metrics based on American Diabetes Association recommendations. With a focus on “continuity and quality improvement in primary care,” the two-year long study concentrated upon type 2 diabetes management through “a systematic chart audit and care planning process” and resulted in “a formal, regular audit process can improve student adherence to evidence-based care guidelines, particularly for tasks that require advance planning or action by the care team outside the day of a patient visit.”
“This work suggests that a student-led quality performance chart review is feasible, and could be used to improve performance on quality measures requiring proactive steps by the care team prior to the patient’s appointment. Other SVFCs could apply this chart review approach to screening steps, such as FIT testing, mammography, low-dose CT and abdominal aortic imaging, that need to be initiated far in advance of being performed. Focusing effort on process measures that rely on advance planning is likely to maximize participation and impact.”
The conclusions of the study demonstrated student-led success “in attaining increased ECMH adherence to diabetic eye exam in a complex patient population,” potentially related to “regular chart reviews” that enabled the “students to refer patients for eye exam appointments proactively.”
As a true medical home for the uninsured, underserved, and undocumented, CommunityHealth prioritizes prevention in our culturally competent care to ensure a health care safety net that supports all intersections of identity, both inside and beyond clinic doors.
Read about the power of prevention as demonstrated in the “performance over 90% at baseline [that] decreased the potential impact of the intervention,” suggesting that “student-led quality performance chart review is feasible, and could be used to improve performance on quality measures requiring proactive steps by the care team prior to the patient’s appointment.”
For at-risk, vulnerable patient populations impacted by intersectional Social Determinants of Health, decreasing wait times and receiving comprehensive services all under one roof can be the difference in not only quality of care but quality of life itself.