Diabetes Education Program

The diabetes education program is based inside the Eccles Outpatient Care Center at Intermountain Medical Center. Its mission is to provide information and support to patients who are being treated on the Intermountain Medical Center campus to help them better manage their diabetes and supplement the medical care they receive from their physicians.

Patients in the hospital's kidney/liver transplant clinic, heart failure clinic, heart transplant clinic, and outpatient clinic will benefit specifically from the diabetes education program. The program's staff also provides education for hospitalized inpatients who have diabetes or glucose intolerance.

Some of the issues the program addresses

The basic physiology of diabetes, how to monitor blood sugar, proper use of medications, meal planning, activities, developing a healthy lifestyle, and when to call your doctor. The program will also address complications that can be linked to diabetes such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, eye damage, nerve damage, and glucose intolerance related to organ transplant anti-rejection drugs.

Because diabetes is a chronic disease, adopting a healthy lifestyle is the key to good health. The diabetes education program coordinators offer many resources to people with diabetes and their families and are trained specifically to help patients learn to live with the disease.