You may have heard that diabetics face a greater risk of complications during hospital stays. Well, now there's evidence that diabetics with trauma injuries are particularly at risk. That info comes courtesy of a large Pennsylvania study that looked at records for around 25,000 trauma patients, half with diabetes, the other half without. The study tracked the patients' progress over the course of almost twenty years. Impressive.

What did they find? Twenty-three percent of the diabetic trauma patients experienced complications. That compares with only fourteen percent of non-diabetics. The diabetics also spent slightly more time in intensive care and were more likely to need ventilator support. The overall risk of infections was higher too - eleven percent versus six percent.

Good news: despite all this, the data did not suggest people with diabetes are more likely to die after a trauma injury. Nor did it suggest diabetics stay in hospital longer than non-diabetics. The team that conducted the study states that the next step would be to examine whether or not improved blood sugar control in diabetic trauma patients would impact these figures.

Read more about these findings by visiting MedPageToday or, for a brief summary, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Or check out the full report, published in Archives of Surgery (July, 2007).

Governer Ed Rendell is worried. An estimated eight percent of Pennsylvanians have diabetes. Nearly 800,000 people. We all know money talks, and what has caught the attention of state politicians is the tremendous cost to manage chronic diseases.

Governor Rendell recently shared that about 78 percent of the state's health care costs are linked to 20 percent of chronic diseased patients. The Governor has announced The Pennsylvania Diabetes Action Plan to improve how Pennsylvanians with chronic disease benefit from future health care.

In an effort to prepare Pennsylvania to educate the public about diabetes and diabetes prevention, and improve management of the disease to reduce complications, the Plan focuses on four key areas: surveillance, standards of care, health policy, and evaluation.

Truly a collaborative of care, more than 200 stakeholders, agencies, organizations and individuals contributed to the Pennsylvania Diabetes Action Plan. The plan was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a state appropriation.

In 2005, potentially avoidable hospitalizations for diabetics in Pennsylvania cost nearly $730 million. Now that is a number even the Governor cannot ignore.