Diabetes clinic adds services, resources as first year ends

CEDAR RAPIDS - As it wraps up its first year, UnityPoint Clinic Diabetes and Kidney Center is adding services and resources.

Starting Sept. 8, the clinic will house St. Luke's Diabetes Education services, formerly located at 810 First Ave. NE. The program helps patients manage diabetes through a team-based approach that includes certified diabetes educators, nurses and dietitians who work with patients' physicians.

The clinic, which opened in October 2014 at 1002 Fourth Ave. SE, offers comprehensive care, Dr. Abha Saxena said. It brings together kidney, diabetes and endocrinology specialists along with dialysis services and the Medical Weight Loss Clinic.

'The process started several years ago,” Saxena said. 'There was no one place. ... You'd have to go to several places to see a doctor, get education or information.”

She said it made sense to include kidney care at the clinic because 20 percent to 40 percent of people with diabetes develop kidney disease.

Linn County has had a steady rise in diabetes and diabetes-related complications. From 2004 to 2010, the population with diabetes rose from 6.3 percent to 8.1 percent in Linn County, according to Linn County Public Health data.

Furthermore, data from the Iowa Department of Public Health shows that diabetes hospitalization rates in Linn County were well above the state rate - with 131.71 per 100,000 people in Linn County compared with 111.79 per 100,000 statewide.

Saxena and the clinic also have created a treatment fund available to low-income patients with kidney disease or diabetes to help pay for medication and transportation costs to and from medical appointments.

The St. Luke's Foundation raised about $17,000 for the fund in 2014. Saxena said the clinic would like to raise more this year and has talked about holding fundraisers.

Saxena said the clinic plans to keep adding services, including diabetes and kidney disease support groups for patients and families.

'To take care of themselves, their families also need education,” she said. 'That comprehensive care is very important in the long term.”