Diabetes and Philanthropy

Diabetes Education:
Attacking the ultimate risk factor

Diabetes is a prime risk factor for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, visual impairment,  nerve damage, persistent wound problems, depression and other conditions that diminish quality of life. Philanthropic support for Piedmont’s Diabetes Education Program strikes a blow against all of them.

More than one in ten Georgia adults has diabetes.

According to the Georgia Department of Human Resources, 700,000 Georgians 18 and older – 10.1% of the adult population – has been diagnosed with diabetes.  For every two known cases, a third case exists but has not yet been diagnosed. 

Diabetes takes a huge toll in lost productivity and early morbidity.  Nearly 38% of diabetes deaths in Georgia are people under 65.  Because the disease is linked to many serious health problems, annual healthcare costs of a person with diabetes are well over double the costs of a non-diabetic.  More than 15,000 hospitalizations a year in Georgia have diabetes as the main cause, at a cost of over $288 million.  Another 19,000 annual emergency room visits are attributable to the disease.  Every day, on average, diabetes directly causes five deaths in the state – more than 1,600 a year. 

How to fight back: Education.

Understanding how to manage diabetes is the key to healthy living in spite of the disease.  Piedmont Hospital is a leader in diabetes education, with more than 100 metro area physicians referring patients to our program.  Participants learn from certified diabetes educators how to control their diabetes through diet, physical activity and careful medication compliance.  The program offers individual consultations as needed as well as ongoing support groups.  In addition to reimbursements, Diabetes Education at Piedmont is supported by a small endowment fund. 

Opportunity:   Education means prevention as well as management.  Largely because of lifestyle factors related to diet and lack of physical activity, the incidence of pre-diabetes in society is rising rapidly.  The Piedmont Diabetes Education Program is expanding our work with pre-onset populations, especially young adults and women with gestational diabetes. This initiative requires philanthropic support to reach out to at-risk populations in the community.  Early knowledge can prevent a lifetime of cardiovascular damage, impaired vision and other debilitating effects of the disease – as well as tremendous healthcare costs.

Diabetes Resource Center

About 24 million people in the United States are living with diabetes, and another 57 million are at risk.  Four years ago Lou Glenn, trustee of the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation, was diagnosed with the disease.

Unmanaged diabetes can lead to serious and life-threatening complications including blindness, kidney damage, heart disease, and lower-limb amputations and is the 6th leading cause of death among Americans. Piedmont is the only hospital in the Atlanta area with a dedicated Diabetes Resource Center (DRC), offering the kind of educational and medical intervention crucial to both preventing and managing the disease.

Lou Glenn states that DRC classes "provided [her] with worthwhile information to help [her] meet this challenge on a daily basis..." Recognizing that because insurance and Medicare coverage for individuals with pre-diabetes or diabetes varies greatly, many people would not have access to the depth of treatment she had received at Piedmont, the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation provided a $1 million gift to Piedmont Hospital to form The Glenn Family Endowment for Diabetes.  This Endowment will sustain and expand the DRC to reach more Atlantans in need, and is currently supporting up to 30 scholarships yearly for families with limited financial resources, as well as funding community outreach and educational programs for physicians and staff.

Supporting the DRC programs at Piedmont Hospital helps engage high-risk, pre-diabetes, and diabetes patients in the self-care necessary to halting the disease's development as well as successfully managing life with this serious illness.

The Glenn Foundation’s gift also supports the expansion and renovation of Piedmont's Emergency Department (ED), helping to double its size, and leading to better departmental flow, a reduction in patient wait time, and improvement in the patients’ health outcomes and overall satisfaction.

For more information about Diabetes Resource Center programs, call 404-605-3823. 

To learn more about the DRC or the Glenn Foundation gift check out the links below: 

• Piedmont Profiles Spring/Summer 2008
• Piedmont Hospital Diabetes Statistic Page
• Piedmont Hospital Facts about Diabetes
• Piedmont Hospital Diabetes Resource Center