Mountain-Pacific Quality Health, based in Helena, was selected to receive one of 10 contracts to improve diabetes care awarded this August by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Dr. Dwight Hiesterman, project leader with Mountain-Pacific, said nationwide, rates of chronic kidney disease more than doubled between 1990 and 2001 and Montana followed this same trend.

Mountain-Pacific will collaborate with state and national organizations already working on these or parallel issues. Groups include the Montana Diabetes Project of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Montana Parish Nurse Ministry, the Montana Chapter of the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

The project will focus on patients with diabetes and/or hypertension, two important risk factors for chronic kidney disease. Specific goals include increasing testing of patients at risk for chronic kidney disease and increasing use of appropriate medications that slow or stop the progression of the disease

The project also aims to increase placement of arteriovenous fistulas, for patients whose kidneys are already failing and who choose hemodialysis. The procedure merges an artery and vein, usually in the arm, to make hemodialysis easier and safer.

Mountain-Pacific Quality Health's corporate headquarters are in Helena. Mountain-Pacific also serves as the QIO for Wyoming, Alaska and Hawaii, working in all these states to improve the quality of health care, particularly in areas that most frequently affect seniors.