Labette Health Announces Plans

to Build Rector Diabetes Education and

Resource Center

PARSONS, Kan., Dec. 5, 2008 – When their grandson Rhett was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes four years ago, Jacque and Kelly Rector looked in vain for detailed information about his condition. Because of their frustration, a new Labette Health facility bearing their name will serve as a resource for area diabetics and their families as well as health-care professionals, educators and the community.

With collaboration and support from the project’s medical director, Parsons pediatrician Dr. Manish Dixit, and Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, the Rector Diabetes Education and Resource Center will serve as a national model for future rural health and education initiatives, said Labette Health President and CEO William Mahoney.

“Thanks to the Rector family’s generosity, Labette Health can now create a rural model that is effective not only in educating people about diabetes but hopefully providing an example that can be duplicated in rural areas throughout the country,” Mahoney told Labette Health Trustees in announcing the gift Thursday morning. “This gift will have an impact far beyond the families whose lives will be improved in our own community.”

The approximately 2,000-square-foot facility will be built by the Labette Health Foundation on the west side of the hospital campus on U.S. 59 on the southern edge of Parsons. Ground will be broken in early 2009, and the project is scheduled for completion in October 2009, Mahoney said.

The Center will include a classroom where groups ranging from grade-school students to health-care providers can receive the latest training about diabetes, nutrition and healthy lifestyles. It also will feature a pantry and food area where healthy snacks can be prepared, and an interactive informational library. Vendors can come and educate physicians, pharmacists and local nursing students.

The Rector Center also will serve as a focus of an ongoing research project that will help identify area children who are at risk for future health problems including diabetes, said Janet Ball, RN, Labette Health director of Quality. Ball is leading a team that is conducting health screenings of area grade-school children to compile body mass index percentile statistics. The BMI percentile, which is calculated using a child’s height, weight, age and gender, is a simple and inexpensive way to identify children who may face future health problems in time to make changes, she said.

“Lifestyle changes are best made in young age groups,” Dr. Dixit said. “We have to invest in the health of our community by controlling obesity and future diabetes. We have to start an innovative, high-quality, cost-effective, child-focused and family-centered care model for control of childhood diabetes.”

Statistical information gained from the screenings will be shared through Children’s Mercy Hospital researchers. When the research project was in the planning stages, Mahoney invited Children’s Mercy’s Karen Cox, RN, Ph.D., executive vice president; Dr. Kurt Midyett, medical director of the Children’s Mercy diabetes program; and Gail Echerd, RN, pediatric endocrinology section manager, to tour Labette Health and learn more about the proposed program.

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to partner with Labette Health on their diabetes initiative. The generous gift provided by the Rector family will be an invaluable resource for the people of southeastern Kansas and beyond,” Dr. Midyett said. “Labette Health has shown true leadership in the healthcare field and their commitment to partnering with Children’s Mercy Hospital can, I hope, be an example of how collaboration between academic and community medical centers strengthens the chance to help our patients and their families learn to better manage their diabetes.”

In addition to exchanging data about patient populations, Ball said that Children’s Mercy could provide educational resources for Labette Health staff and other local medical providers. The Labette Health project is expected to serve as a model for future Children’s Mercy outreach activities as well as a “front line” screening site and a training site for endocrinology residents.

Jacque Rector credited a Labette Health committee chaired by Dr. Dixit and including Mahoney, Ball, Marsha Wingate, Mary Hizey, Debra Herrman, Holly Winkler, Cindy Myers, Labette Health Foundation President Brian West and Foundation Executive Director Rod Landrum with taking a rough idea of helping parents of juvenile diabetics to the finished concept of an educational resource center.

“We realized that we had to go back to the education part first. When it comes to understanding diabetes and the insulin pump, there’s a fear factor with the public, school administrators, teachers and even some school nurses,” Jacque Rector said. “Everyone’s intimidated by it, nobody wants to touch it, and there’s no way for anyone to obtain even a basic level of education about it. Every time Rhett goes back to school with a new teacher, there’s a learning process they have to go through.”

The Mays’ and Rectors’ day-to-day experiences with Rhett and their involvement with Labette Health and the Parsons community led them to work through the Labette Health Foundation to help other families of diabetics, they said.

“We have wanted to do something for a long time,” said Kelly Rector, a Labette Health Trustee and the former president/ CEO of Wichita Southeast Kansas Transit, a Parsons trucking company. “We’ve lived here since 1978. We’ve raised and educated our children here. We wanted to do something to give back, and we felt that we could have more of an impact here than anywhere else. This community has been good to us and we feel strongly about this project and juvenile diabetes education.”

Labette Health Foundation President Brian West praised the Rector family’s vision and commitment to the Parsons community. The gift is one of the largest in the Foundation’s history.

“I am thankful to be a part of such a wonderful gift that will not only impact the patients in our community but has the potential to impact the nation,” he said. “The Foundation is humbled by the gift from the Rectors.”

Today six-year-old Rhett, the son of Ron and Angie May of Lawrence, Kan., is an active child who plays baseball and basketball under the watchful eye of his parents and his 13-year-old sister Brealynn. He wears an insulin pump most of the time, taking it off only when he participates in contact sports. Rhett has learned to count carbohydrates, and although he is not yet allowed to program his insulin pump himself, he knows when his condition requires an adjustment, Jacque Rector said.

“It’s a matter of raising awareness, because there’s absolutely no reason a child with diabetes can’t lead a completely normal life if the people around him are aware and trained,” she said.