Aspirus Keweenaw

Diabetes Clinic

The Aspirus Keweenaw Diabetes Clinic

Why we’re here
The goal of the Diabetes Clinic is to assist the person with diabetes to achieve their best possible quality of life. This is accomplished through education and encouraging clients to follow through with prevention measures that will decrease the risk of developing diabetes complications. If diabetes complications are present we work with clients to slow down the progression of them.

Who we are
The clinic is run by Deborah Gruver, FNP and Elaine Parks, RN. Elaine is a certified diabetes educator. Dale Schmeisser, PhD, RD sees patients twice a month for individual nutritional counseling. Cathy Taskila, MA is the office assistant. Call 337-6598 for appointments. Clients are usually referred by their primary provider, but do not need a referral to be seen. Appointments for the Diabetes Clinic can be made by calling 337-6560 option #2.

Community programs
The Diabetes Clinic hosts Diabetes Self Management Training classes monthly. They are certified by both the Michigan Department of Community Health and the American Diabetes Association. These are the fourth Wednesday of each month and are held in the conference room of the hospital. Currently, there is no charge for these sessions. A Diabetes Support group is held on the first Wednesday each month at 2pm. There is no charge. For information on either one of these programs please call 337-6598 or click here.

Clinic visits
Clients are seen individually with Deborah Gruver and Elaine Parks. These are one hour visits that consist of medication adjustments, foot examinations, developing self-management goals, and achieving and maintaining standards of care to improve patient outcomes. Clients are encouraged to bring a support person. We want to hear about your personal experiences with diabetes. We can then work together to develop a plan that meets your needs. In addition to clients with diabetes we also see pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and gestational diabetes at the clinic.

Of interest
The Diabetes Clinic was been awarded a $150,000 to facilitate diabetes care, education, and to develop a patient registry that we can track diabetes health indictors. This will allow us to continuously monitor, evaluate, and improve patient’ blood pressures, hemoglobin A1C’s and LDL (bad cholesterol), therefore; improving quality of life.