July 31, 2014 – : Managing Chronic Disease

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Anchor lead:  Nurses can manage chronic disease effectively, reducing costs and facilitating care for patients, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Nurse-led interventions to help people manage their high blood pressure or diabetes are not only effective, a recent study in Annals of Internal Medicine reveals, they cost less to employ.  Patricia Davidson, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, applauds the findings.

Davidson: That study comprised 18 individual studies and over 23,000 patients throughout the world, and showed that nurse-led protocols were effective in addressing biomarkers of chronic disease such as HbA1c and hypertension. That really underscores the importance of how we’re going to scale up and manage chronic disease interventions. Because people with chronic illness consume 75% of the healthcare budget. And we really need to be able to save more of that money for prevention.   :30

Davidson says her experience with nurse-directed care also often improves patient satisfaction, as nurses  frequently are able to spend more time with people.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.