The goals of the Delta BLUES (Better Living Utilizing Electronic Systems) Beacon Community are to achieve targeted improvements in diabetes care through a range of interventions designed to improve quality, cost, and population health for persons diagnosed with diabetes in the Mississippi Delta. Specifically, the health information technology-enhanced clinical interventions will:
Support patients to better understand and utilize the medications that their physicians prescribe through the exchange of patients' health information with pharmacists who will follow up with patients using personalized telehealth services to deliver education and support
Reduce hospital stays due to poor management of diabetes by supporting doctors in establishing effective discharge protocols and by sharing hospital visit information with primary care providers to actively follow up with patients when they return to their home environment
Improve health outcomes of diabetic patients by implementing robust clinic-based case management strategies that are enhanced by electronic health record reporting capabilities
Minimize cost inefficiencies and improve care at the time of delivery using computerized clinical decision support
We really think the Beacon Community will allow physicians to be a lot more efficient, to catch things that they wouldn't have caught, to see more patients in a day because they're aided by this technology.
–Karen Fox, Ph.D., Delta Health Alliance BLUES Beacon Community
Visit healthIT.gov to learn more about how health IT is helping patients, doctors, and stakeholders get the information they need, empowering them to make changes, and improving the nation's health.
