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Diabetes management of elective hospital admissions
Author(s) -
Flanagan D.,
Ellis J.,
Baggott A.,
Grimsehl K.,
English P.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
diabetic medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.474
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1464-5491
pISSN - 0742-3071
DOI - 10.1111/j.1464-5491.2010.03114.x
Subject(s) - medicine , diabetes mellitus , audit , emergency medicine , population , retrospective cohort study , acute hospital , diabetes management , type 2 diabetes , health care , surgery , management , environmental health , economics , endocrinology , economic growth
Diabet. Med. 27, 1289–1294 (2010) Abstract Aims At any given time, people with diabetes occupy approximately 10–20% of acute hospital beds. In addition, diabetes is associated with a greater length of stay. Patients undergoing elective procedures occupy approximately 50% of hospital beds. The aim of this 12‐month project was to improve the quality of diabetes care for elective inpatients. The primary outcome measure was length of stay. Methods A team was established to improve the quality of care and reduce the length of stay of all patients admitted electively with diabetes. Specific areas of focus were surgical pre‐assessment, planning the admission, post‐operative care and planning a safe discharge. A retrospective audit of all elective patients with a coded diagnosis of diabetes admitted between June 2008 and June 2009 was performed. Results Comparing the year of the project with the preceding year day‐case rates for patients with diabetes increased by 34.8% for diabetes vs. 13.7% for the total hospital population ( P for difference = 0.048). There was a significant fall in diabetes length of stay of 0.34 days comparing 2008 and 2009 ( P = 0.040). Over the same period, we have shown a smaller reduction in length of stay for all other admissions of 0.08 days ( p = 0.039). Conclusion A team specifically employed to focus on elective inpatient diabetes care have a significant impact on length of stay of this patient group with potential cost savings.