The Healthcare Management Council, Inc. is a healthcare performance improvement company that conducts hospital department manager peer networking sessions to generate and share cost-saving ideas among hospitals.

(PRWEB) May 6, 2004 -- In an effort to decrease time spent in initial individual diabetic consultations between RNs and diabetes patients, Rex Healthcare sends patients an assessment form to complete at home before coming in for the visit.

Much of the diabetes assessment information required by the ADA is not used during the individual meeting. Shelley Conner, the Diabetes Program Coordinator at Rex Healthcare, and her team have put together an assessment form that covers all of the information required by the ADA and sends it home to their patients prior to the initial visit. Therefore, when the patient comes in for the visit, the staff member can briefly review the assessment, focusing primarily on the answers that are directly related to the basic education that must be covered during the individual visit.

During the individual visits for diabetes patients at Rex, RD's or RN's briefly go over meal planning, medication, carbohydrate counting and blood glucose monitoring. Patients are also set up with a meter during the individual visit. Meal planning, medication and meter details are covered during group classes.

This performance improvement idea was captured and shared in an HMC iConference, a meeting place in the HMC KnowledgeWeb where hospital department managers from across the country solve and discuss performance improvement challenges. See upcoming iConferences and read about other performance improvement ideas at the HMC iConferences home page: http://www.hmc-benchmarks.com/hospital/ccs.shtml

Contact: Shelley Burns (SHBurns@HMCOnline.net)
The Healthcare Management Council, Inc.
Area: Hospital Performance Improvement
Web site: http://www.HMC-Benchmarks.com