In 2010, Della Ingram-Stephens' top priority was working and taking care of her family. Seeing to her health was often an afterthought. That changed when she ended up in the Ascension Borgess Emergency Department (ED) at age 50.

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"I was very dizzy and weak, and I couldn't see well," Ingram-Stephens says about her decision to ask her son to drive her to the ED. Hospital staff found that Ingram-Stephens had dangerously high blood sugar (glucose) levels and quickly went to work to get her out of danger, stabilize her and admit her to Ascension Borgess Hospital.

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Ingram-Stephens' visit to the Ascension Borgess ED was just the beginning of her health journey. She was in the hospital for a week and a half, during which doctors and nurses were successful in lowering and stabilizing her blood sugar level. They also diagnosed her with type 2 diabetes, a chronic disease in which the body does not use insulin properly, leading to high blood sugar levels. Having high blood sugar levels for an extended period can lead to health problems such as cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, kidney damage or failure, and blindness.

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Diabetes is a long-term disease, but patients can manage it through diet, exercise and medication. During her hospital stay, Ingram-Stephens learned about the Ascension Borgess Diabetes and Endocrine Center, where she could develop relationships with diabetes experts and learn how to control the disease. Ingram-Stephens began attending group education classes at the clinic and seeing the clinic's physicians, including Dr. Michael Valitutto, who leads the clinic. 

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Millions of Americans need diabetic care
While Ingram-Stephens' introduction to diabetes may seem dramatic, the diagnosis is not unusual. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10.5 percent of the US population lives with diabetes, while 34.5 percent of the adult population is prediabetic. Prediabetes is when a patient's blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes. Additionally, an estimated 7.3 million people are undiagnosed diabetics. These statistics should give everyone pause and incite a sense of urgency to create awareness about diabetes, says Dr. Valitutto. 

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"The facts are clear and heart-wrenching: Diabetes patients lose an average of seven years of life, and their chance of developing heart failure is two and a half times higher than average," Dr. Valitutto says. "And three-quarters of those with diabetes don't adequately control it."

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Dr. Valitutto and others at the diabetes center are working to spread awareness of diabetes and increase understanding of why it is crucial to control the disease. 

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"If you look at the costly life-disrupting consequences of poor diabetes care, it's devastating," Dr. Valitutto says. When patients control their blood glucose, blood pressure, blood cholesterol and stop smoking, they significantly reduce their odds of developing severe complications from diabetes. "At least three out of every four diabetics don't adequately control" these four factors, Dr. Valitutto adds. 

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Educating patients about how to control their blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol through diet, exercise, medication and insulin, if needed, is at the heart of the center's work. "We have a world-class education program," Dr. Valitutto says. "We're a Michigan-certified and an American Diabetes Association-certified Diabetes Center of Excellence."

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Dr. Valitutto explains that patients receive 10 hours of face-to-face education in their first year with the center. Each year after, if there's a change to their health, they can receive two additional hours of updated education if requested by a clinician. The education ranges "from understanding how to monitor your glucose, how to make better food choices, and how to administer these game-changing, life-saving medications," Dr. Valitutto says. In addition, patients work with a diabetes coach who "walks that journey with them because this is a marathon, not a sprint."

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Providing care for uninsured/underinsured patients
An essential part of the Borgess Diabetes and Endocrine Center is the Diabetes Uninsured/Underinsured Clinic. The clinic provides eligible patients with free doctor visits, lab work, diabetes education, and glucose meters with ongoing testing supplies.

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“Patients who receive care through the uninsured clinic receive identical care as those who have premium health insurance,” Dr. Valitutto says. In addition, a diabetes education coordinator helps patients complete assistance applications to pharmaceutical companies so they can benefit from free diabetes medications.

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Funding for the uninsured clinic comes from generous donations from Cole Community Solutions, Schupan & Sons, and the Ascension Borgess Foundation. "We could not provide care to uninsured and underinsured patients without these generous donors," Dr. Valitutto says. "One hundred percent of the dollars from these donors has gone directly to patient care."

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Patient Della Ingram-Stephens received care through the uninsured/underinsured clinic. She credits the education and care she received through the clinic with her now having her diabetes under control. 

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Ingram-Stephens learned about proper nutrition for diabetics at the clinic. She became a pescatarian which means she eats fish and eggs but not meat. The pescatarian diet also stresses other vegetarian foods such as vegetables, fruits, dairy, beans, tofu and grains. "I don't want to feel bad every day, so I will eat like this until the day I die," she says. "I didn't realize that what I was eating was all wrong."

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Changing her diet and adding an exercise regimen that includes walking twice a day – two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening – has led to weight loss, stabilizing her blood sugar, and lowering the amount of insulin she needs. "I feel really good," she says. 

Ingram-Stephens is grateful to the donors who make the uninsured clinic possible. She says financial donations to the clinic have played a large part in her success by making educational classes and medication available. "A lot of people can't afford the medication they need. That's why a lot of people die," she says. "Donations keep people alive."

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The clinic is such an indispensable part of her life that Ingram-Stephens has included it in her will. "Whatever is left after I'm gone goes to the clinic."