PORTLAND, Ore. - A $2.5 million grant to Oregon Health & Science University will expand Care Management Plus, a technology-intensive, innovative primary care model that reduces hospitalizations, lowers costs, and improves health outcomes for older adults with chronic illnesses.
The four-year grant from The John A. Hartford Foundation will make Care Management Plus available to dozens of rural and urban clinics across the country.
"By marrying clinically supported technology and personalized, one-to-one care, Care Management Plus has helped primary care teams enhance care for patients with complex illnesses," said David Dorr, M.D., assistant professor of medical informatics and clinical epidemiology, OHSU School of Medicine, and the project's principal investigator.
In initial studies of Care Management Plus, seniors with diabetes in the program had better control of their blood sugars and were more likely to be regularly tested. They also had 15 to 25 percent fewer long-term complications, a 20 percent reduction in mortality, and a 24 percent reduction in hospitalizations, compared to a control group.
"We are optimistic that the program could also improve treatment and lower costs for the care of other chronic diseases, such as depression, cardiovascular and end-of-life care," Dorr said.
This would represent an important step forward, as patients with chronic illness account for 75 percent of health care expenditures in the United States. Sixty-five percent of the Medicare-funded population have two or more chronic conditions and represent 95 percent of Medicare costs, and this group has up to 98 times the rate of preventable hospitalizations than the rest of the population.
Cherie P. Brunker, M.D., co-principal investigator, Intermountain Healthcare and the University of Utah Division of Geriatric Medicine, describes Care Management Plus as "giving providers the tools they need to improve care and meet
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Contact: Jonathan Modie
modiej@ohsu.edu
503-494-8231
Oregon Health & Science University
10-Apr-2007