Maricopa Integrated Health System’s Champion For Diabetes Prevention

Medicare offers free diabetes screenings – no co-pay and no deductible – to beneficiaries at-risk for diabetes.   Since 2008, the Medicare Diabetes Screening Project has awarded 43 grants of $2,500 each to community-based organizations that earned their grants through a competitive awards process through which they demonstrated a commitment and innovative plan to promote the Medicare diabetes screening benefit to seniors and health care providers in their communities.

Working with the MDSP grant, MIHS has reached hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries who may not otherwise have known about the benefit and been screened for diabetes. Under a new program in place in the health system, screenings are conducted at every family clinic that is part of MIHS.

Chairman of the MIHS Board of Directors, Elbert Bicknell

As a spokesperson for the MIHS awareness campaign, Chairman Bicknell speaks openly with colleagues and hospital administrators about his disease and the ramifications of diabetes; he is a champion of diabetes management and prevention.

“Don’t be afraid when you hear the word, diabetes,” says Bicknell, who was diagnosed with diabetes four years ago. He often speaks at information sessions at senior centers and other community forums along with the staff of the El Mirage Family Health Center, an MIHS facility.  In March he authored an editorial “Diabetes Screening is Imperative for Seniors” for the The Arizona Republic, the state’s largest newspaper,

Chairman Bicknell attributes his health system’s success with screening promotion to the people who are “in the trenches” and “on the ground” with patients day-in and day-out. These people include doctors, nurses, dietitians, and other health professionals and educators who are part of the MIHS team. Specifically, he mentioned Patricia Stradleigh, the El Mirage nurse who heads the effort to promote diabetes screening for seniors. He credits her, as well as her health professional colleagues at MIHS with having enthusiasm that “takes over” in order to help those who may be “beaten up by this disease”.

Bicknell’s own experience with diabetes has helped motivate him to spread the word about diabetes screening, prevention and care.  Throughout his life and career as a law enforcement officer and restaurateur in New England, Bicknell recalls that diabetes was not a topic for casual conversation.   “Before I was diagnosed with diabetes, I knew nothing about the disease,” said Bicknell. “The news that my blood sugar level was high came as a complete shock to me, because I had assumed I was in perfect health.”

When he learned he had diabetes, Chairman Bicknell reacted as he would to any other important or difficult problem that comes his way – he decided to learn as much as he could about the disease on his own.

Looking back, Bicknell figured that he had probably been prediabetic for a few years, given his previous lifestyle choices. However, he did not have any family history of the disease, and he had never bothered to get screened.

“I’m constantly amazed at the number of people I come in contact with who have diabetes or who are at risk, and yet won’t talk about,” said Bicknell. He believes that is due in part to the fact that older adults in Medicare are of a generation where personal struggles and health issues are often not discussed openly. As a result, Medicare beneficiaries may be uninformed about the disease, and unaware that their friends have diabetes, or that they may be at risk themselves.

When asked what his advice is for older adults who may be nervous or unsure about diabetes screening, Chairman Bicknell says, “Don’t wait any longer. Though diabetes can be slow-acting, it can be an insidious disease if ignored for too long.” Complications include kidney failure, loss of eyesight, heart attack, stroke, and possible amputation, to name a few. If a screening shows signs of prediabetes, a person can often prevent the onset of diabetes through lifestyle changes, through relatively modest amounts of weight loss and increases in physical activity. Diabetes, if caught early on, usually can be managed.

“There is so much impact from diabetes in our community – particularly among the Latino, Native American and black population who are especially hard hit by diabetes,” Bicknell says.  “There are challenges – such as language barriers, transportation, and education, but we have to get the word out to people and inform them that there are free diabetes screenings under Medicare.”

Bicknell, who was elected to the Board of Directors in 2008, has a vision of the Maricopa Integrated Health System becoming a “center of excellence” in diabetes research and care. The impressive commitment to promoting diabetes screening, prevention and management for Medicare beneficiaries shows that MIHS and Chairman Elbert Bicknell are determined to make a difference in the fight against diabetes.

For more information about the Maricopa Integrated Health System, please click here.

For more information on diabetes risk factors and screening for diabetes for Medicare beneficiaries, please click here.