Abstract

Objective: This practice improvement project was designed to test the efficacy and feasibility of implementing Shared Medical Appointments (SMA) as an innovative approach to improve the care of diabetic patients while containing costs in a rural private practice associated with an Accountable Care Organization (ACO).

Methods: Five Medicare quality measures specific to diabetes were used as patient outcomes: hemoglobin A1C control.

Results: Fifteen patients participated in one or more monthly SMAs with groups ranging from two to five participants per appointment over 10 months. Participants indicated a high level of satisfaction with themes associated with social support. No significant difference between groups in the attainment of CMS measurements was found between groups however, the BMI was significantly improved for the SMA group.

Conclusions: The SMA may be a venue to activate patients to achieve health outcomes in a cost-effective manner if the recommended census of eight participants is achieved. Recommendations for implementation are provided.

Author Details

Rebecca Rohrbach, DNP, MSN, RN

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Case-Control Study

Research Approach

Pilot/Exploratory Study

Keywords:

Shared Medical Appointment, Accountable Care Organization, Triple Aim, Chronic Care Model

Advisor

Phyllis Gaspar

Second Advisor

Timothy M. Gaspar

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

The University of Toledo

Degree Year

2015

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

Faculty Approved: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Self-submission

Date of Issue

2015-05-28

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