The Marin General Hospital Diabetes Care Program: Keys to Control (DCP) enhances the treatment of all hospitalized patients with diabetes and hyperglycemia (high blood sugars).

Growing medical evidence now shows that optimal control of diabetes in such high-risk patients leads to improved hospital outcomes, such as reduced surgical complications, rates of infection, renal failure and shorter lengths of stay.

"The underlying goal of the program is to create a culture of diabetic wellness and diabetic awareness throughout the hospital," said Dr. Linda Gaudiani, the program¹s Medical Director. An experienced advocate for patients with diabetes, she has served on the MGH medical staff as consulting endocrinologist and has an endocrinology practice in Marin.

Dr. Gaudiani's DCP partner is Mindy Schwartz, RN, Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist, the former manager and developer of California Pacific Medical Center's successful outpatient Diabetes Program.

Together they have organized a growing, specially- trained nursing staff and multi-disciplinary committees to advise and implement recommendations for the program¹s success. They educate doctors and nurses on the need for careful and attentive diabetes control in their patients and introduce specific diabetes treatment protocols and guidelines.

"Our goal is to help each person improve the quality of his or her life and delay or prevent the debilitating complications associated with chronic high blood-sugar levels," said Schwartz. "An important contribution we can make to the good health of patients with diabetes is to teach them to understand how to self-manage their own condition."