SUCCESSFULLY LEADING transitional care innovations Three nurse-managed clinics provide care for those with diabetes and heart failure, and Veterans with mental health needs. Clinical care coordinator Susan Kurre, and Social Worker Erin Clarkson.
> LEADING DIABETES CARE INNOVATION When the UAB School of Nursing opened its nurse-managed PATH (Providing Access to Health Care) Clinic in 2011 its goal was to help patients with no health insurance, many of whom were homeless, without access to health care.
“This clinic has an incredible impact on the quality
of
life for our patients, not just in terms of their diabetes, but also in terms of their overall health.” -Dr. Michele Talley
6
UAB NURSING / FALL 2015
Keeping patients’ blood sugar in check prevents other long-term complications.
But its founder, Associate Dean for Clinical and Global Partnerships and Professor Cynthia Selleck, PhD, RN, FAAN, had her sights set on expanding the clinic to provide chronic disease management for uninsured and underinsured patients with diabetes and began looking for innovative ways to make this a reality. In 2012 the School received a three-year, $1.4-million Nurse Education Practice Quality Retention (NEPQR) grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to develop and implement an interprofessional collaborative health-care transition clinic at the PATH Clinic to improve the quality of care and outcomes for underserved patients with diabetes recently discharged from UAB Hospital. It, along with supplemental funding from the UAB Health System, brought together a team that included nurses, physicians, nutritionists, social workers and more, to provide follow-up and continuing care, along with access to testing supplies and medications, for these patients.
“Diabetes is an enormous health issue in Alabama,” said Will Ferniany, PhD, CEO of the UAB Health System. “More than a third of our non-maternity patients in UAB Hospital suffer from, and nearly half of our patient days are associated with, poor blood sugar control. When you factor in that a large number of these patients lack insurance, and they often have no access to medical care or diabetic medications and supplies outside of the hospital, providing a source of ongoing care with access to needed medications and testing supplies is a win-win situation.”