The Washington State Department of Health Diabetes Prevention and Control Program and Qualis Health (a Medicare Quality Improvement Organization) sponsored the Washington State Diabetes Collaboratives (WSDC) I and II.WSDC I and II are quality improvement projects for primary care practices to improve health outcomes for people with diabetes. Seventeen practice teams and 10 health plans participated in WSDC I, and 30 practice teams and 7 health plans participated in WSDC II. Teams established a registry to track their patients with diabetes and test and implement changes in their practice using the Chronic Care Model as a framework. The Washington State Diabetes Prevention and Control Program developed the Diabetes Electronic Management System (DEMS) and provided this tracking system and technical assistance to participating clinics free of charge.

The goal of this program is to improve health outcomes for people with diabetes in Washington.

After a 13-month intensive phase, the Diabetes Prevention and Control Program and Qualis Health continue to provide services and encouragement to support the clinical practice teams continuing their work. Some of these services include maintaining an active E-mail list for team members to consult their peers, providing aggregate quarterly reporting to give teams a statewide benchmark, providing ongoing DEMS registry support, and training new staff. Among 981 patients, blood sugar levels decreased on average by approximately 10%, and the prevalence of patients who had extremely high blood sugar levels decreased from 24% to 17%.