AMITA Health Alexian Brothers Women & Children's Hospital Earns Distinction From American Diabetes Association

The recognition signifies that the hospital's pediatric diabetes self-management education program meets national standards developed and tested under the auspices of the National Diabetes Advisory Board in 1983 and revised by the diabetes community in 1994, 2000, 2007 and 2012.

AMITA Health Women & Children's Hospital is one of only three children's hospitals in the Chicago area that have earned the distinction.

"This recognition is a credit to our staff of healthcare professionals, who provide state-of-the-art education about diabetes self-management for our pediatric patients," says Kevin Rath, Executive Director of AMITA Health Women & Children's Hospital. "It tells the patients and families we serve that they can depend on us to develop and improve the self-care skills that are essential to diabetes management."

Teaching patients to self-manage diabetes can help them avoid hospital admissions and acute and chronic complications of diabetes. Patients participating in the diabetes self-management education program at AMITA Health Women & Children's Hospital benefit from the expertise of a team of healthcare professionals that includes  board-certified pediatric endocrinologists Angela Ganan Soto, M.D., and Priya Khanna, M.D.; certified diabetes educators Terri Wojciak, R.N., C.D.E., and Gina LeMaire, R.N., C.D.E.; health psychologist Lacey Sewell, Psy.D.; and a group of nutritionists.

"With the support of the team and increased knowledge and awareness of diabetes, a patient and his or her family can assume a major part of the responsibility for diabetes management," Rath says. "Our program is designed to evolve with patients as they go through childhood and adolescence and their needs change."

Programs apply voluntarily for the four-year ADA recognition and must undergo a rigorous and thorough review process to ensure that they meet the National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Programs.

Programs that comply with the standards offer greater consistency in the quality and quantity of education offered to people with diabetes, ADA says. All approved programs cover the following topics, as needed: diabetes disease process; nutritional management; physical activity; medications; monitoring, preventing, detecting and treating acute complications; and preventing, detecting and treating chronic complications through risk reduction. Other topics covered as needed include goal setting and problem solving, psychological adjustment, and management of diabetes in the different stages of childhood and adolescence.

Launched by ADA in 1986, the Education Recognition program has grown to become the leading quality assurance mechanism for diabetes self-management education programs across the nation.

In the United States, 29.1 million people, or 9.3% of the population, have diabetes, according to ADA. Although an estimated 21 million have been diagnosed, 8.1 million are not aware that they have the disease. Each day, more than 4,600 people are diagnosed with diabetes. Many will learn that they have diabetes when they are treated for one of its life-threatening complications, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and nerve disease. Diabetes contributed to 234,051 deaths in 2010, making it the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S. Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of people of similar age who do not have diabetes.

For more information about the diabetes self-management education program at AMITA Health Women & Children's Hospital, or to make an appointment, please call 847.490.4222 or 855-FOR-KIDZ.

About AMITA Health

AMITA Health (AMITAhealth.org) is an integrated health system serving communities in western and northwestern suburban Chicago. AMITA Health is a Joint Operating Company formed in February 2015 by Adventist Midwest Health, based in Hinsdale, Ill., and Alexian Brothers Health System, based in Arlington Heights, Ill., encompassing nine hospitals and an extensive physician provider network of more than 3,000 physicians.

About American Diabetes Association

The American Diabetes Association is the nation's leading nonprofit health organization supporting diabetes research, advocacy and information for health professionals, patients and the public. Founded in 1940, the Association has an area office in every state and conducts programs in communities nationwide.

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SOURCE AMITA Health

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