Measuring your success is key part of DM program
Database helps quantify your results
The last and perhaps most important step in designing a disease management program is to develop a way to track your members and measure your success.
ConnectiCare, based in Farmington, CT, uses a tracking database created by the company’s database and design specialist John Plecan, who uses Microsoft Access, an off-the-shelf database program.
When you identify your members, your database helps you keep track of them.
For instance, ConnectiCare’s database enables the plan to track interventions, including when they were called, what was discussed, what were their health perceptions, when they saw the doctor, etc. ConnectiCare tracks clinical outcomes such as hospitalization and emergency room utilization as well as performing quality of life assessment surveys and measurements.
It uses the outcomes for continuous quality improvement projects to fine-tune the programs.
A tool to measure the return on investment or the financial benefit of the programs also is useful in proving to management that the program works.
"This has been evolving since we started. It’s not an easy thing to measure," says Jay Salvio, BSN, MBA, director of the health management department at ConnectiCare.
But remember, it takes a long time to see a return on your investment for some conditions such as diabetes, Salvio warns. For CHF and asthma, you can tell the investment has paid off in a shorter time, he says.
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