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Janice L Clarke

Publications and source records attributed to Janice L Clarke.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

A focused telephonic nursing intervention delivers improved adherence to A1c testing.

Compliance with hemoglobin A1c (A1c) testing is suboptimal despite the clear national recommendations and guidelines established for care of patients with diabetes. Recent studies have demonstrated a relationship between participation in a diabetes disease management (DM) program and improved adherence to A1c testing. A focused intervention study was initiated to investigate the ability of a DM program to drive improvement in A1c testing. A cohort of 36,327 members experienced a statistically significant increase (29%) in A1c testing while participating in the 6-month focused intervention. This finding demonstrated that a focused DM intervention is able to deliver improvement in a clinical process metric critical for managing patients with diabetes, thereby reducing their risk of disease exacerbation.

Adolescent↗

Improving quality by encouraging providers to use pediatric combination vaccines.

In the last 4 decades, the number of diseases that vaccines can prevent has quadrupled, and, correspondingly, so has the number of immunizations that is to be administered before a child's second birthday. Based on current recommendations, a child may receive as many as six vaccine injections in a single visit. Vaccine technology has advanced significantly since the introduction of the first combination vaccine, diphtheria-tetanus (DT), in the 1950s. In the United States today, as many as five antigens can be administered in a single injection, and additional combination vaccines are in the pipeline. Increasing the number of antigens delivered with a single injection minimizes physical discomfort for the child, reduces associated stress for the parent, saves time for the provider, and is likely to improve vaccine coverage and timeliness of administration rates. While national immunization guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for use of combination vaccines where available, provider and parent perceptions can act as barriers to their optimal use. Managed care organizations (MCOs) have the opportunity to improve quality of care and immunization rates by educating providers on the use of combination vaccines in accordance with the national guidelines. This article examines the evidence for pediatric combination vaccines, discusses barriers to their use among parents and providers, presents quality and cost implications of a managed care policy to broaden their use, and suggests ways in which MCOs can more actively promote appropriate use of combination vaccines by providers.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.↗

Disease management.

What follows is a comprehensive discussion of chronic diseases and how they can be managed in the workplace. General background about chronic diseases is given, as well as a description of what kinds of programs are available, how they can be implemented, how they can be assessed, and potential cost savings and projected return on investment. Also included is a brief summary of accreditation and certification processes currently in place.

Accreditation↗