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Kelsey-Seybold Clinic Newsroom

Kelsey-Seybold Clinic earns national recognition for efforts aimed at managing Type 2 diabetes and CVD risk

Houston (December 10, 2020) — Kelsey-Seybold Clinic has received the American Heart Association's Target: Type 2 Diabetes℠ Gold Award for implementing quality improvement measures addressing the relationship between diabetes and cardiovascular disease in outpatient settings.

Every 80 seconds, an adult with diabetes in the United States is hospitalized for heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack. To earn the Target: Type 2 Diabetes award, organizations must commit to improving the health of their patients through high-quality care related to Type 2 diabetes and management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors with the ultimate goal of reducing CVD deaths, heart attacks, and strokes in people living with Type 2 diabetes.

"Kelsey-Seybold Clinic has a long, successful history of providing specialized care for patients with Type 2 diabetes and in helping manage their cardiovascular risk factors," said Leon Jerrels, R.N., director for Quality Improvement at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. "We are pleased to be recognized by the American Heart Association for this award because providing quality care to patients living with Type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases is something we are passionate about. The tools and resources provided help us enhance our overall diabetic care programs, through the use of benchmarking and evidenced-based clinical guidelines that have a positive impact on improving patient outcomes."   

The Gold award recognizes practices that have fulfilled the participant criteria and have met the gold-level thresholds for each of two selected clinical measures related to diabetes control and CVD risk factors, hypertension, and high cholesterol.

"More than 30 million Americans live with diabetes, and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for people living with Type 2 diabetes," said Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D., F.A.H.A., volunteer expert from the AHA, chief of the UCLA Division of Cardiology, director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center, and co-director of UCLA's Preventive Cardiology Program. "Organizations that participate in programs like this help raise awareness of the link between diabetes and cardiovascular disease and can improve the patient outcomes. We are pleased to recognize Kelsey-Seybold Clinic for their commitment to quality care."

About Kelsey-Seybold

Kelsey-Seybold Clinic is Houston's premier multispecialty group practice, founded in 1949 by Dr. Mavis Kelsey in Houston's renowned Texas Medical Center. More than 850 physicians and allied health professionals practice at 40 locations in the Greater Houston area. Kelsey-Seybold offers quality medical care in 65+ medical specialties. The organization operates the largest freestanding Ambulatory Surgery Center in the state of Texas and offers state-of-the-art Varian TrueBeam and Varian Edge radiation therapy technology at a nationally accredited Cancer Center. An accredited Sleep Center, comprehensive laboratory services, advanced imaging and diagnostics, 24 onsite Kelsey pharmacies and one specialty pharmacy, and MyKelseyOnline, a secure web portal, are part of its comprehensive offerings. Kelsey-Seybold partners with major insurers to offer value-based commercial health plans. KelseyCare Advantage, a Medicare Advantage plan offered to Houston-area beneficiaries and affiliated with Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, has achieved the coveted 5-out-of-5-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for eight consecutive years.

Kelsey-Seybold has been recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as the nation’s first accredited Accountable Care Organization and is home to a nationally accredited Breast Diagnostic Center and Endoscopy Center.

Kelsey-Seybold Clinic achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 91. NPS is the global standard for measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction. An NPS score of 70 or higher is considered by industry experts to be "world class" and an indicator of overwhelming customer loyalty.

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