El Rio - 2009 Pinnacle Award - Government Agency-Nonprofit Organization Award

The El Rio Community Health Center provides accessible and affordable health care primarily to underserved populations, 70 percent of whom live at or below the Federal poverty level. More than 75,000 people rely on this center as their primary source of medical and dental care making El Rio one of the largest non-profit, community health centers in the United States. In 2000, a law was passed by the Arizona Legislature that authorized pharmacists to enter into collaborative practice agreements with physicians to manage a patients drug therapy. Subsequently, El Rio implemented the pharmacist-based diabetes disease management program using a residency trained, bilingual pharmacist as the provider for patients referred to the service by staff physicians. In the program, pharmacists serve as the primary care providers for the patients diabetes and co-morbid conditions. Program participants have achieved an average 1.8 percent decrease in A1C level from 10 at baseline to 8.2 at follow-up. Blood pressures have improved from 124/74 to 120/71 and LDLc levels have gone from 108 to 89.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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