INDIANAPOLIS—Today, the Indiana State Department of Health is hosting the Indiana Primary Care Learning Collaborative Outcomes Congress in Indianapolis. The event is free and open to the public.
The Collaborative started as a pilot program to help Indiana’s Community Health Centers (CHC) improve patient outcomes in the areas of diabetes, adult and childhood obesity, cancer screenings and tobacco use prevention and cessation. These patient outcomes were expanded to include hypertension and prenatal care.
“The Outcomes Congress provides an opportunity for participating Community Health Centers to describe their experience and report successes,” said State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams, M.D., M.P.H. “Peer-to-peer learning makes this experience a valuable one to participants.”
Chronic disease is a growing problem in Indiana. The state’s prevalence rates for diabetes (11 percent), heart attack (5.2 percent) and stroke (3.1 percent) are higher than median U.S. rates. In addition, although two out of every five Indiana residents now living will eventually develop cancer, Indiana’s screening rates for breast cancer (69.5 percent), cervical cancer (73.2 percent) and colorectal cancer (62.5 percent) are among the lowest in the nation. Indiana also ranks poorly in the areas of obesity (31.8 percent) and smoking (21.9 percent) – factors that directly impact chronic disease. These issues must be addressed in primary care settings
“This gathering is a time to celebrate all of the hard work of Indiana’s Community Health Centers,” said Dr. Adams. “Not only will this event allow participating Centers to discuss how they have improved patient outcomes, it also serves as the beginning of the next phase of improvement, which includes replicating these efforts in other areas.”
