How To Treat Diabetes Using Recuro Primary Care

There are 37M Americans with diabetes (11% of the population) according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is estimated that 96M adults are affected by pre-diabetes, a diagnosis that can be prevented. Nearly 38% of the adult population in the United States suffer from pre-diabetes. Employers incur $90B in indirect costs (such as absenteeism and lost productivity) and $327B in direct costs for diabetes care, consuming 1 in 4 healthcare dollars… WOW! With numbers like this, it’s obvious virtual primary care is an amazing savings opportunity for employers. Recuro Primary Care is a great way for employers to provide virtual-based diabetes care to members who desperately need support, including:

1. Patient-centered decision-making

As described in a Mayo Clinic study, “shared decision-making is a collaborative process in which patients and clinicians work together to make informed decisions. This dialogue aims to identify reasonable management options that fit and address the patient’s unique situation.” Virtual primary care allows patients and doctors to collaborate and communicate wherever and whenever is convenient for them. Patients can communicate with their primary care providers via telephone or video calls to facilitate shared decision-making. As a result, patients have more time to discuss behavior changes with their doctors that can improve diabetes management, such as losing weight, exercising or modifying diet.

2. Detailed diabetes care checklists

Doctors must perform many tasks in order to provide proper diabetes care to their patients. Among other things, a doctor should check a patient’s hemoglobin A1c every 3 months, refer them to an ophthalmologist for a retina exam yearly, and check their kidney function with regular blood and urine tests. Checklists are crucial for making sure those tasks are accomplished. By integrating checklists into the electronic medical record and the workflow of the doctor, Recuro’s Virtual Primary Care allows the doctor and the diabetic patient to accomplish these tasks together.

3. Age-appropriate screening based on guidelines

People with diabetes should receive age-appropriate and guideline-based screenings to ensure they remain healthy. Several health concerns must be assessed, including hypertension, high cholesterol, depression, smoking, substance abuse, and a variety of other problems. A patient with diabetes must keep his or her whole body healthy in order to prevent diabetes from progressing. Using virtual primary care to coordinate these screenings is an effective method. Home blood pressure checks can be performed by patients and many laboratories also offer this service. A doctor can order blood tests via virtual primary care at a lab near the patient, thus eliminating the need to meet in person twice. By using Recuro Primary Care, depression and healthy behaviors can also be assessed through questionnaires.

Contact [email protected] for a demo of our primary care offering.