2016 Oklahoma Rural Health Conference

TMF Health Quality Institute, the medical quality improvement organization for the state of Oklahoma, is offering an opportunity for multiple people in rural communities to access appropriate, comprehensive, evidence-based diabetes self-management education (DSME) services. TMF, via their CMS contract, has developed a Train-the-Trainer project, whereby health professionals, along with capable volunteers, can elect to become trained and certified to deliver the Diabetes Empowerment Education Program (DEEP), which was designed by the University of Illinois/Chicago. The DEEP program is one of only two evidence-based DSME programs which CMS has sanctioned the medical quality improvement organizations throughout the nation to use as they train people in local communities to deliver DSME services and address the current gap in access to good DSME programs particularly noticeable in rural areas. During this presentation, staff from TMF in Oklahoma, along with several partners who have become trained and certified to deliver DEEP, will discuss the benefits of this evidence-based DSME program and methods for spreading it more widely in rural areas of Oklahoma.