Many diabetes patients fail to improve even after prescriptions are written and goals set for improving blood pressure or diet.
Diabetes that can?t be treated in routine doctor visits has come to be known as clinical inertia, said Dr. Sally Pinkstaff, endocrinologist and director of Diabetes Programs at Sinai Hospital.
“The community really needs to be involved with the patient,” she said. “When you have a family member ? a kid or an older adult ? they depend on their family for their care.”
Sinai teamed up with Care Improvement Plus, a Maryland health plan focusing on chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries, to provide educational seminars and materials for Baltimore-area seniors and their caregivers.
Family members acting as caregivers help not only the patient but also their physicians, said Martha Fountain, director of health services and a registered nurse with Care Improvement Plus.
Diabetes is a disease in which your body either doesn?t make enough insulin or can?t use its own insulin as well as it should, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that allows the body to absorb sugar from the blood. Diabetes is the sixth most common killer in the nation.
The disease affects 7 percent of Marylanders, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. That number increases to one in five seniors over 65.
Day to day management of the condition is crucial to “reducing the risk of blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and amputation,” Pinkstaff said. “Those are some serious conditions.”
Signs you might have diabetes
» Frequent urination
» Excessive thirst
» Unexplained weight loss
» Extreme hunger
» Sudden vision changes
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
