There is no need to sugarcoat the diabetes epidemic. According to Oregon Health Authority and Washington State Department of Health data, 9% of adults in Oregon and Washington have the disease, while 12.4% of adults in Oregon and 11% of adults in Washington are prediabetic. In Oregon, diabetes notably affects patients older than 55 (18%), patients with obesity (15.4%) and patients of color (14.9% of Black patients; 13.7% of Latinx patients; 10.3% of Asian patients; and 8% of white patients). Managing this chronic condition is challenging for our care teams, patients, and families. Legacy Health Partners (LHP) clinics are developing quality initiatives and implementing tools that are improving patient health and bettering clinical performance.

First place 2024 LHP Quality Award winner, Legacy Medical Group-Woodburn Health Center, focused its efforts on decreasing uncontrolled HbA1c results. In just one month, the clinical team reduced the percentage of uncontrolled HbA1cs from 25% to 23% and increased the percentage of patients with HbA1c tests every six months from 88% to 90%. The success of this initiative came from the clinic’s medical assistant’s reliance on their strong patient relationships to close care gaps.

Developing outreach strategies like LMG-Woodburn Health Center will help clinics reach their patients and deliver high quality care. In addition, submitting supplemental data, is another important method used to close care gaps and capture accurate 2024 performance results. A patient’s lab test date, lab result, reference range, and lab information are all required to submit supplemental data.