PacMed Offers an Accredited Diabetes Education Program

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Diabetes is a life altering disease and one that requires an individual and their family to make a lot of changes just to stay reasonably healthy. But no matter how hard you work at "controlling" diabetes, you don’t get over it…..you can only get better at living with it and doing what you need to do to feel ok every day, but there is no cure. The good news is that lifestyle changes can really impact how the disease affects each person.

At Pacific Medical Centers, we want our patients with diabetes to live their lives to the fullest so we’ve created a comprehensive program to help them understand and manage their condition and get on with the important things in their lives that they really care about. And now we’re proud to announce that our diabetes self-management education program has been accredited by the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE). This recognition affirms PacMed’s commitment to partnering with our patients with diabetes to help them live their best lives.

PacMed’s diabetes education program helps patients attain the necessary knowledge and skills needed for diabetes self-care. The AADE accreditation means the program is comprehensive, effective and meets national standards for excellence.

By working with an educator one-on-one or in a class, diabetic patients create specific, attainable goals—such as remembering to take medications, exercising more or eating within a certain level of carbohydrates. They are then tracked and monitored, and their goals are adjusted, all in a collaborative environment with their providers. This system has been shown to improve disease management.

"The AADE accreditation is yet another building block in the development of our diabetes program," says Dr. Rebecca Over, endocrinologist at Pacific Medical Centers who oversees the program. "The key for treating our diabetic patients is giving them the tools for self-management. By being accredited, we are recognized as following national guidelines in educating and providing these tools to our patients."

During the accreditation process, the AADE evaluated the organizational structure, process and clinical outcomes of the program. For the PacMed organization, this means the program has clearly defined mission, goals, processes and quality controls. For patients, this means that the self-management education is a coordinated, inclusive process between the patient, their educator, and their providers that includes assessment, goal setting, coaching, and follow-up evaluations.

"For the accreditation, we are required to incorporate continuous quality improvements each year," says Dr. Over. "For the upcoming year, we will be targeting patients whose diabetes is uncontrolled and ensuring that they are part of the education program—and if not, referring them for one-on-one counseling or a group session, or to the chronic disease nurse case management program available in our Northgate clinic under the direction of Terri Wolber, DNP, ARNP." Currently, PacMed has two certified diabetes educators, Barbara Benson-Bishop, RN, and Cristina Lattuga, RD.