2013 Articles

Expansion of Electronic Health Record-Based Screening, Prevention, and Management of Diabetes in New York City

Albu, Jeanine B.; Sohler, Nancy; Matti-Orozco, Brenda M.; Sill, Jordan; Baxter, Daniel; Burke, Gary R.; Young, Edwin R.

To address the increasing burden of diabetes in New York City, we designed 2 electronic health records (EHRs)-facilitated diabetes management systems to be implemented in 6 primary care practices on the West Side of Manhattan, a standard system and an enhanced system. The standard system includes screening for diabetes. The enhanced system includes screening and ensures close patient follow-up; it applies principles of the chronic care model, including community–clinic linkages, to the management of patients newly diagnosed with diabetes and prediabetes through screening. We will stagger implementation of the enhanced system across the 6 clinics allowing comparison, through a quasi-experimental design (pre–post difference with a control group), of patients treated in the enhanced system with similar patients treated in the standard system. The findings could inform health system practices at multiple levels and influence the integration of community resources into routine diabetes care.