Mercy’s Diabetes Education Center Nationally Recognized

SPRINGFIELD — The Diabetes Education Center at Mercy Medical Center has been awarded continued Education Recognition from the American Diabetes Assoc. (ADA) for providing high-quality education services to the patients it serves.

The ADA Education Recognition effort is a voluntary process which assures that approved education programs have met the national standards for diabetes self-management education programs. According to the ADA, programs that achieve this status have a staff of knowledgeable health professionals who can provide state-of-the-art information about diabetes management for participants.

Self-management education is an essential component of diabetes treatment, and participants in an ADA-recognized program are taught self-care skills designed to promote better management of their diabetes-treatment regimen.

All approved education programs cover a comprehensive list of topics to meet the patient’s individual needs. These topics include diabetes disease process, nutritional management, physical activity, medication, monitoring, goal setting and problem solving, as well as preventing, detecting, and treating acute complications, and preventing, detecting and treating chronic complications through risk reduction.

“With the support of the health care team and increased knowledge and awareness of diabetes, patients are empowered to be more responsible for their diabetes management and the prevention of complications from the disease,” said Mary Anne Sopelak, education coordinator, nutrition education, at the Diabetes Education Center. “The ADA Education Recognition is a tremendous distinction that not only gives professionals a national standard by which to measure the quality of the services we provide, it also helps consumers to identify these quality programs.”