Enhanced Care for Diabetic Patients under Chronic Care Model

The Ministry of Health and Wellness is working on a one-stop solution for diabetic patients where they will be able to visit their clinic on a specific day to have all related health issues addressed.

The move is part of measures to improve health outcomes for patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) under the Chronic Care Model (CCM), which is being executed through the Health System Strengthening Programme (HSSP).

Speaking at a JIS Think Tank on Tuesday (July 30), Non-Communicable Disease Lead for the HSSP within the Ministry, Professor Alafia Samuels, noted that “diabetes is a complicated disease with many different pieces that you need to be looking after.

At the moment, for each piece, the patient has to come to the health centre on different days”. She said that the HSSP team is working to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ where there will be a designated day for persons living with diabetes to visit the health centre because all the relevant specialists will be there on the day to attend to them.

“We are going to have the foot doctor there, the eye person, the person to take blood, the person to counsel you on how to take your medication and the person to tell you how to eat. This is to ensure that when they come, we make the most efficient use of the patient’s time by delivering a quality integrated programme,” she pointed out.

CCM provides a patient-centred approach to care. It seeks to enhance the experience, health status and the quality of care delivered to patients within the public health system while reducing potential complications from chronic diseases.

Professor Samuels pointed out that the CCM is not entirely new to Jamaica, having been successfully implemented in mental health and HIV programmes.

“We are escalating, improving, and fully implementing it within the network of our project in 10 health centres and three hospitals across three parishes,” Professor Samuels said.

These are the Spanish Town Hospital, St. Jago Park Health Centre, Old Harbour Health Centre and Greater Portmore Health Centre in St. Catherine; St. Ann’s Bay, Ocho Rios and Brown’s Town Health Centres in St. Ann; as well as May Pen Hospital, Chapelton Community Hospital and May Pen East, May Pen West and Mocho health centres in Clarendon.

The CCM is an organisational framework for improving the care and management of chronic illnesses through interventions at the patient, provider and system levels.

It links informed patients with prepared and proactive healthcare workers and is composed of six principal components – organisational support; clinical information systems; delivery system design; decision support; self-management support; and community resources.

]Under the HSSP, Jamaica is pursuing a CCM with improved access to strengthened and integrated primary and hospital services networks that provide more-efficient and higher-quality care.