The Health Disparities Collaboratives (HDC) were developed to change primary health care practices in order to improve the health care practices provided and to eliminate health disparities. The mission of the collaboratives is to achieve excellence in the delivery of primary health care for underserved populations.
Spectrum Health Services joined the HDC in 2005 as active members. Using a registry system and model of care allows us to improve how we care for our adult diabetic patients. We further spread this approach in 2006 to improve the care of our pediatric patients with asthma. Spectrum Health Services aspires to advance our commitment to a continuous quality improvement project which collaboratively involves all levels of our staff.
Our diabetic and asthma collaborative teams utilize a proactive organizational approach to screening and follow up care of our patients. Using the care model, the collaboratives follow key measures within each discipline. These core measures are carefully tracked on all patients and shared with others. Overall the system is population based and creates practical supportive evidence based interactions between an informed patients and a prepared proactive team.