Chartering a Disease Management Team: The Search for Improvement Opportunities

Abstract

Saint Francis Hospital, a 630-bed tertiary medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, recently launched an aggressive disease management program. Four disease management teams were initially chartered to improve the management of patients with diabetes, depression, congestive heart failure, and pediatric asthma. Shortly thereafter, a sweep of the hospital's databases provided additional performance improvement opportunities that required immediate attention. In this article, the authors will describe the processes used by Saint Francis Hospital to identify improvement opportunities and the initial steps used by disease management teams to effect immediate improvements.