Customized plan helps learn self-management
February 1, 2002 2 minutes read
Customized plan helps learn self-management
Kit is geared to member’s condition, education level
If participants in Denver-based One Health Plan’s CareResults disease management program are at moderate or high risk, they receive an individualized boxed kit that includes literature, videos, and cassette tapes from national organizations like the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association and a customized booklet, usually 20-25 pages long, based on their replies to survey questions.
"We’re not giving them a big book that they throw on the shelf because it has a bunch of information they don’t need. The book is written at their reading level, based on their level of education, and contains only the information they need," says Wally Gomaa, MBA, MHA, president of One Health Plan.
For instance, patients with cardiac conditions are told to get the right medication and take it as prescribed, stop smoking, use low-dose aspiring every day, manage their blood pressure, manage their blood lipid levels, exercise, and eat the right foods.
A separate smoking-cessation kit is distributed as needed. The kit also contains home testing kits, depending on the condition. For instance, diabetics receive a hemoglobin A1c kit, asthmatics get a peak flow kit, and those in the cardiac programs receive a lipid home test kit.
The program provides training on how to use the peak flow meter and the importance of the hemoglobin A1c testing.
The participants are asked to mail the test kits back to the lab, postage paid. The lab sends the results to One Health Plan, which forwards the information on to the members and their physicians. Members in the program are asked to take quarterly surveys and regular lab tests. Each time they re-take the survey, they receive a personalized report with feedback and recommendations for action. After 12 months, they re-enroll in the program.
"The real goal is to move the high-risk individuals to the lower-risk categories," Gomaa says.
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