Mark Smithwick, MBA, CPPS, from the Synensys patient safety team, recently presented at the 2019 Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Summit on Improving Patient Care. His poster presentation was based on his team’s patient safety programming to improve diabetes management by engaging patients in their diabetes care management while simultaneously decreasing monthly telephone consultations in their diabetes clinic.
Smithwick and his improvement team members empowered patients to access and manage their own supplies and diagnostic devices as needed without additional gatekeeper requirements at the diabetes clinic.
“By redesigning the system to make it more patient-centric,” said Smithwick, “we were able to increase efficiency and improve our diabetes outcomes according to our quality measures. That’s a win-win formula for patient safety.”
