A Patient’s Story: Dealing with Diabetes
Diabetes affects all aspects of someone’s life – something Sally knows all too well. She just celebrated turning 50 with family and friends, but her initial diagnosis came when she was just 12 years old. It hasn’t been an easy road to wellness for Sally, but she knows keeping a careful eye on her symptoms is important to her overall health, including her mental health.
“I live alone,” Sally says. “I worry that my blood sugar will drop and I won’t be able to help myself. And when I worry like that, my anxiety gets really bad.”
Sally, however, trusts that the team of providers at UCM Digital Health is there to help her when she has an emergency, has non-emergency needs related to managing her Diabetes care, or just needs to talk to someone because she is feeling anxious or down. “I used to call 9-1-1 for help because I didn’t know what else to do. Now, I rely on UCM for help.”
Sally has access to virtual care provided by UCM through her Medicaid plan. She can connect with a team of providers 24/7, whenever she needs help. With UCM, she gets access to an ER trained medical provider, a mental health provider, and a care coordinator. Together, the team cares for all of Sally’s needs – whether it’s overseeing her treatments, testing her blood sugar, talk with her about her diet or her mental health concerns.
To help her better manage her health, Sally’s UCM care coordinator even helped Sally to get set up with a case management program through her health plan and provided her with a home health resource for ongoing support at home.
“I am so thankful I have access to UCM,” says Sally. “I don’t know what I’d do without them to care for me.”
How UCM Digital Health’s medical team helps Diabetes patients manage their care:
- On-call response
- Blood sugar testing
- Monitoring blood sugar results
- Recognize when further care is needed
- Identify when symptoms worsen
- Coordinate in-person care and labs
Did you know?
- More than 34 million people in the United States have diabetes, and 1 in 5 of them don’t know they have it.
- Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States (and may be under reported).
- Medical costs and lost work and wages for people with diagnosed diabetes total $327 billion yearly.
- Medical costs for people with diabetes are twice as high as for people who don’t have diabetes.
statistics from the CDC
