St. Luke Hospitals: Diabetes Centers

A comprehensive, holistic approach to moving past your diagnosis.

Moving past diabetes involves understanding and accepting the disease, making the necessary modifications to your lifestyle and then refocusing on your life, not your diabetes. The Diabetes Center at The St. Luke Hospitals offers an empowering program for anyone diagnosed with diabetes and seeking a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to health care and well-being.

The Diabetes Center is the first of its kind in Northern Kentucky and has been recognized by the American Diabetes Association for quality patient education. Participants benefit from the expertise of a wide range of diabetes educators including a registered dietitian, medical social worker and diabetes nurse educator. These professionals are available to discuss your personal concerns or questions and offer education on a variety of diabetes-related topics such as:

Medications
Exercise
Blood sugar monitoring
Dining out
Making sense of nutritional labels
Pregnancy and diabetes
Family coping
Stress management
Gestational diabetes
Diabetes complications

As a participant in the program, you will learn how to:

Relieve fear and frustration about diabetes
Regain control of your life
Plan meals to meet your nutritional needs
Confidently manage your diabetes

Learn to manage your diabetes through:

Education

A diabetes nurse educator offers instruction on such topics as self-care, administering medication, monitoring blood glucose levels and recognizing acute diabetes complications. At the end of your program, the educator will send a communication form to your physician indicating you have successfully completed all content areas.
Exercise

An experienced diabetes educator is available to recommend and personalize a training program to control your diabetes through maintaining an active lifestyle.
Nutrition

Good nutrition plays a major role in diabetes management. A registered dietitian will perform a nutritional assessment to determine your dietary needs and preferences, and then help you to create a meal plan for home cooking or dining out.
Psychosocial support

A medical social worker is available to you and your family for guidance, support or information on community groups and resource.

The diabetes education program at the Diabetes Center is designed to accommodate various schedules and lifestyles. Programs are offered at both St. Luke East and St. Luke West, Monday through Friday. Although many participants are referred by their physicians, you do not need a physician’s referral to enter the program.

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that occurs usually in the last months of pregnancy. It occurs when the pregnant woman’s blood sugar levels are higher than normal.

The St. Luke Hospitals Diabetes Centers have a nurse educator and dietitian to help you control your blood sugars.

At both St. Luke Hospital East and West we offer:

A blood glucose meter and starter supplies
Blood glucose monitoring instruction
Nutrition counseling
Exercise guideline instruction (when appropriate)
Pre-pregnancy counseling for women with diabetes

Education

An experienced diabetes educator covers such topics as how to care for yourself, how to monitor blood glucose, how to administer medication (if required) and how to recognize problems.

Nutrition

Good nutrition is a key to diabetes management. A registered dietitian performs a nutritional assessment on every client to determine dietary needs and preferences. An individualized meal plan is created to fit into your lifestyle.