Diabetes Management Project

The Diabetes Management Project at Gouverneur Health Services helps mostly low-income patients with diabetes to man-age their illness. This project works to control diabetics’ glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol and ensures that patients have annual eye exams, foot care counseling, and vaccinations. Practitioners identified patients with uncontrolled glucose levels and developed a Fast Track program to quickly regulate their conditions. They have appointments on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for protocol-driven medication adjustment (both oral and insulin) by a physician’s assistant and self-management counseling with a registered nurse. Gouverneur hopes to expand this program to all diabetes patients within the hospital. To facilitate this expansion, the Capstone team looked at several financial and managerial aspects of the project. The Capstone team examined billing methods to calculate project revenues and recommended ways to increase reimbursements and reduce payment denials. The team also developed an expense budget for the diabetes project including personnel and other services. Finally, the team researched outside sources of funding and recommended potential project grants.