Foundation Breaks Ground for Rector Diabetes Center

PARSONS, Kan, .April 2, 2009 – A groundbreaking ceremony on the Labette Health campus marked the formal beginning of one of the most unique and ambitious health initiatives in recent history, Labette Health President and Chief Executive Officer William Mahoney told an audience of community leaders and visitors.

When completed this fall, the Rector Diabetes Education and Resource Center will be a 2,000-square-foot facility that includes a library, classroom space and a demonstration kitchen, all aimed at halting the spread of diabetes in Southeast Kansas. Not only is the concept of a separate facility dedicated to diabetes and nutrition education unique to this area, there are no other diabetes resource centers in primarily rural areas like Southeast Kansas, Mahoney said.       

“This will be a lot bigger than any of us think it is even now,” Mahoney said.

Funded by a generous donation from Parsons residents Jacque and Kelly Rector to the Labette Health Foundation, the Center will host Labette Health’s American Diabetes Association-certified Diabetes Self-Management Education program and diabetes support groups, as well as school busses full of grade-school children, groups of educators and the public.

Wielding the first shovel was the Rectors' grandson Rhett, who inspired the project. The son of Ron and Angie May of Lawrence, Rhett was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age two. As they looked for information about his condition, the Rectors were dismayed by the lack of resources available to diabetics and their families, as well as educators, school nurses and others who may come in contact with juvenile diabetics.

“We realized that we needed to focus on education,” Jacque Rector said. “There is 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.

Working with the project's medical director, Dr. Manish Dixit, and the Labette Health Foundation, a committee led by Labette Health Director of Quality Janet Ball, R.N., laid the groundwork for the building and designed a program that included both educational and health-screening components.

Although type one diabetes, a condition in which the body does not produce insulin, is caused by an autoimmune disorder, type two diabetes has been closely linked with health and lifestyle factors such as obesity and a lack of physical activity. Therefore, a screening program was developed to gauge the risk among area schoolchildren.

In the fall of 2008, Ball’s team screened 602 Labette County children in grades two through five, collecting height, weight, blood-pressure and other data that was used to group the children into Body Mass Index (BMI) categories.

The study found that more than 20 percent of the children ranked in the 95th percentile for obesity as defined by the Centers for Disease Control classifications, and an additional 16 percent were overweight. Those figures are somewhat higher than national rates published by the CDC.

The screening program will be expanded to other area schools this fall and data collected from the surveys will be shared with diabetes researchers at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City.

Gail Echerd, R.N., Children’s Mercy pediatric endocrinology section manager, noted during the groundbreaking ceremonies that her team will begin coming to Labette Health for monthly outreach clinics in June.

With its growing focus on diabetes, Labette Health will serve as a training site for endocrinology residents. In turn, specialists and researchers such as those from Children’s Mercy will provide educational resources for area physicians and healthcare providers.