The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) announced that J. Collins Corder, MD, of Clayton Primary Care, located on the campus of Missouri Baptist Medical Center received recognition from the Diabetes Physician Recognition Program for providing quality care to his patients with diabetes.
The Diabetes Physician Recognition Program improves the quality of care that patients with diabetes receive by recognizing physicians delivering quality diabetes care. It also motivates other physicians to document and improve their delivery of diabetes care. In receiving this recognition, valid for three years, Dr. Corder submitted data demonstrating performance that meets the Programs' key diabetes care measures. These include eye exams, blood pressure tests, nutrition therapy and patient satisfaction, among others. When people with diabetes receive quality care as outlined by these measures, they are less likely to suffer complications such as heart attacks, stroke, blindness, kidney disease and amputations.
Doctors who participate in these programs tend to improve the quality of care they provide quite rapidly. Professional ethics is a strong motivator throughout the field, and doctors who identify opportunities for improvement typically change practice patterns and make improvements quickly. Among doctors who participate in the Diabetes Physician Recognition Program, rates for nephropathy screening, lipid screening and control and blood pressure control all improved between 50 percent and 100 percent within five years, a much faster rate of improvement than among health plans.
"I was thrilled to receive such an honor," says Dr. Corder. "Diabetes education and awareness is the first step to fighting and managing the disease."
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes physicians in key clinical areas. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is the most widely used performance tool in health care. NCAQ is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media, and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices.
Diabetes is a serious disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows blood sugar to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. An estimated 16 million Americans have diabetes; it is the sixth-leading cause of death by disease in the United States and it has no cure.