Team Approach to Chronic Disease Care to Expand

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has won a nearly 19 million dollar federal grant.

The money will pay for an expansion of the hospital’s MyHealthTeam initiative to 18 counties in Tennessee and Kentucky. The program emphasizes coaching by nurses and things like teleconferencing and regular review of patients’ records. The goal is to get chronic cases of heart failure, high blood pressure and diabetes under better control with fewer doctor’s visits.

Official say expanding the health teams concept to a larger area could save a total of 38 million dollars in health care costs, including 27 million dollars for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is the agency responsible for the grant.