Diabetes Resource Center Receives Quality Award
May 14, 2018 (Sonora, CA) – Adventist Health Sonora’s Diabetes Resource Center recently received the American Diabetes Education Recognition Certificate for a quality diabetes self-management education program. The certificate is awarded every four years by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) to organizations that meet standards defined by the National Diabetes Advisory Board.
Diabetes programs that receive recognition through the ADA have a staff of knowledge-able health professionals who can provide participants with comprehensive information about diabetes management. “The certification process gives professionals a national standard by which to measure the quality of services they provide,” says Jacey Rodriguez-Serva, FNP, who manages the resource center. “And of course, it assures the consumer that he or she will likely receive high-quality service.”
Since its opening last October, Adventist Health Sonora’s Diabetes Resource Center has seen a steady increase in people seeking help to manage their diabetes. “We already have 60 physician-referred patients, and the number keeps growing every month,” says Rodriguez-Serva. She adds that the center is also helping community members through its “PreventT2” program, a year-long course designed to help people with prediabetes prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.
“Diabetes can be a difficult disease to manage, so we want to be a part of their health-care team,” says Jodie Rodriguez, outpatient dietician at Adventist Health Sonora. “People now have somewhere to go for whole-person help and support.” At the resource center, patients receive help with monitoring blood glucose, eating a balanced diet, managing medications, setting goals for exercise and dealing with stress. Personalized treatment plans also include referrals for other services and specialists when needed.
Rodriguez stresses that it is their intense, one-on-one relationship with patients that builds the foundation for success. “We spend a lot of time with patients so we can dig deep into the lifestyle and personal challenges that may be preventing them from making healthy choices,” she says. “Every individual, every case is unique.” Rodriguez-Serva agrees, citing two examples of how close evaluation and support helped break through barriers. “Two of my patients’ blood glucose levels were not going down. In time, I learned that one hadn’t been taking his medications properly; once he did, his stubborn wound began to heal and his blood sugars reached near-normal. In the other case, I watched the patient give himself a shot and realized he had been one decimal point off in dosage, which meant he wasn’t getting the proper dose. After correcting that, he made great progress.”
People with diabetes can live long, healthy lives as long as their disease is properly managed. Poorly controlled diabetes can cause a variety of complications including nerve damage, trouble healing wounds and cardiovascular disease. An estimated 7,000 people live with diabetes in Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties.
One of the Diabetes Resource Center’s goals is to reduce the diagnosis of diabetes by more than 50 percent in our community. With that goal in mind, they will offer a new PreventT2 track in October 2018. A physician referral is not required but is recommended. Enrollment is limited. For more information, please call 209-536-3720 or visit http://www.adventisthealthsonora.org/diabetes-care. If you have been diagnosed with diabetes and would like to make use of the Diabetes Resource Center, obtain a medical referral from your physician.
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Adventist Health Sonora Wins
Performance Excellence Award
April 24, 2018 (Sonora, CA) – For the second year in a row, Adventist Health Sonora has received the prestigious California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE) Eureka Award, from the California Council for Excellence (CCE). Adventist Health Sonora was one of only four health care organizations to win for 2017, capturing a bronze-level award. Gold-level award winners are eligible to compete in the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award program.
The CAPE awards are modeled after the Baldrige Framework for Performance Excellence. Applicants go through a rigorous, three-month evaluation process that covers their performance in seven areas: Leadership; Strategy; Customers; Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management; Workforce; Operations; and Results. The evaluation culminates in a week-long site visit.
Adventist Health Sonora received high marks in the Results category because of its financial performance. Theodore Griffin, director of strategy at Adventist Health Sonora, says they are proud to be fulfilling their mission, in part, by reaching financial goals. “As a nonprofit health care organization, financial success means being able to reinvest in new services and technologies that benefit our community,” he says. “A great example of that is the new Health Pavilion and Diana J. White Cancer Institute, which we are celebrating on April 30.”
Griffin says Adventist Health Sonora also received high scores in the Customers category for its discharge phone call process and in the Workforce category for its new HireVue recruiting technology and semi-annual skills fair for clinical staff.
Adventist Health Sonora President Michelle Fuentes says using the Baldrige Framework for Excellence and participating in the awards program evaluation process are great learning experiences. “We are on a journey of continuous improvement, so having this kind of third-party review and recommendations for opportunities for improvement is invaluable,” she says. “It allows us to align systems and processes throughout our hospital, clinics and other services so that everyone can work toward caring for our community in the best ways possible.”
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