“It’s a big move for us,” said Nicole Lashaway, certified diabetes educator and clinic manager. Harrision has had a diabetes care program in place for quite some time, but the limited space available to the diabetes center within the hospital was beginning to hamper the program.

“We were maxed out on the number of patients we could see,” Lashaway said.

The new clinic will have ample space available to add an additional, full-time certified diabetes educator to its staff, which in turn will enable the clinic to offer new programs to its roster, such as pre-surgical counseling for patients preparing to undergo gastric bypass surgery. Moving the diabetes care clinic off hospital grounds will also make the clinic more convenient for patients and provide them with a warmer setting.

“People won’t feel like have to go to the hospital to receive education and counseling,” said Lashaway.

Harrison Diabetes Care offers one-on-one counseling to diabetes patients, as well as a number of group classes on topics such as Type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and cardiac care. Public offerings include regular blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol screening events, a presence each year at Whaling Days and sponsorship of an annual, one-day diabetes health fair each year at the County Fairgrounds, to be held this year on Oct. 26.

The diabetes care clinic also provides training in area school systems for school nurses and offers a “parent-designated assistant” certification program as a service to the school districts to teach school staff how to care for students with diabetes, covering topics such as administering insulin, monitoring blood sugar and evaluating when treatment is necessary.

A grand opening date for the new space has not yet been set, although Lashaway anticipates that the clinic will be patient-ready this spring. Meanwhile the current diabetes care center at Harrison will continue to provide services to patients.