How Physicians Know which Patients are at Risk for Diabetes

Practice-Based Population Size and Expected Risk Profile and Diabetes paper
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Table 2: Prevalence of Common Chronic Diseases for physician panels of 2,500 patients
Table 3: Health risks across the population: Prevalence estimates by size of physical practice
Considering the implications of the data in Tables 2 and 3 below about the condition prevalence and risks, describe in a 1-2 page paper how a practice of 100 physicians—perhaps configured as an ACO—would manage the risks and conditions of 14,500 diabetics and 160,000 people who are overweight or obese. Also, describe how the physicians would find out which of these patients are at risk for diabetes but don’t know it yet.
When the physicians form the accountable care organizations (ACOs), they share the responsibilities for providing care, sharing costs and improving the quality of patient care (Colla et al., 2016). The ACO is held accountable for providing care to the 14,500 diabetics and 160,000 overweight or obese people. Since the ACO initiatives target managing medical conditions the performance measures will help reducing spending through coordinating interventions to improve the health outcomes of diabetics, obese and overweight people (Yeung, Burns & Loiacono, 2011). Identifying and managing the risk actors is prioritized including high blood pressure, diet, obesity, tobacco use stress and physical inactivity. This should also include subject-intensive education to inform the diabetics and obese people about management strategies and making the right lifestyle choices
The physicians would require coordinating the cases as they are guided by the risk factors for the diabetes, overweight or obese people. This will reduce incidences of diabetes and the impact of being overweight and obese on the health status of the population. It is necessary to ensure there is patient compliance, as this is one of the major reasons for the failure of ACO and when there is increased screening among those at risk (Colla et al., 2016). A process follow-up is also required as the patients do not always comply and a nurse care manager would oversee the transition of the patients fr...