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Aiming High | Healthy Memphis Common Table, Healthy Memphis Data Center, Aligning Forces for Quality, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Jim Bailey, Reneé Frazier

Renee Frazier

Healthy Memphis Common Table Shows Shelby County Doctors Provide Diabetes Care Exceeding National Benchmarks; Work Needed on Women’s Health

Shelby County physicians are providing diabetes care that exceeds national benchmarks, according to findings released by the local nonprofit collaborative Healthy Memphis Common Table, but there’s room for improvement in women’s health.

The publicly reported data, available at HealthyMemphis.org, looks at whether doctors are providing recommended diabetes and women’s healthcare, and combines the two categories to create an additional snapshot of overall care.

To identify four types of healthcare needed most by Memphis metro area residents, Common Table worked with local stakeholders—consumers, doctors and employers such as Memphis Business Group on Health, Health Plans Cigna, Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee—to gather data used to document healthcare services patients received. Physician groups helped verify accuracy.
“This report helps us pinpoint areas where we are doing well, and also identifies where we need to improve,” said Common Table CEO Reneé Frazier. “In our quest to become one of America’s healthiest cities, we need to report on the care that’s being delivered and make that information accessible and easy-to-understand for everyone–those who give, get and pay for care–to help them take charge and manage their health and healthcare.”
Diabetes care highlights:

85 percent of Shelby County doctors provide diabetes care that exceeds national benchmarks determined by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
70 percent of doctors routinely deliver the recommended average blood sugar (A1c) test to patients with diabetes more than 90 percent of the time.
Variation exists; some doctors may give the annual test to patients only 60 percent of the time.

Women’s care highlights:

Within some medical groups, the majority of patients (97 percent) are screened annually for breast cancer.
In others, patients receive this service less than half of the time (45 percent).
Two-thirds of the medical groups included in the report exceed national benchmarks in providing recommended screenings for breast and cervical cancer.

The Common Table has encouraged physicians to partner with patients to improve care for diabetes since 2003, when it started the Obesity and Diabetes Initiative.

“Doctors in Memphis are dedicated to providing people the care they need most,” said Jim Bailey, MD, director of the Healthy Memphis Data Center at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. “This latest report, which covers the majority of primary care practices, offers a benchmark of where we are as a community. We can use the information to continue to help identify ways to lift the quality of care in the Mid-South.”

Memphis represents one of 15 communities nationwide participating in a concerted effort to improve healthcare delivery and quality. Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Aligning Forces for Quality initiative requests doctors, patients, employers, insurers, health groups and others to work toward common, fundamental objectives leading to better care, including measuring and disclosing doctors’ and hospitals’ performance.