SAN FRANCISCO, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- By participating in Lumetra’s Diabetes Care Collaborative, Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, California developed a multi-faceted intervention for diabetes care management which resulted in a considerable 44% reduction in the rates of elevated blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia) in hospitalized patients.
Clinical, operational and educational interventions were the focus of the yearlong Diabetes Care Collaborative from February 2004 - February 2005 at the full-service 377-bed non-profit community medical center.
Incorporating lessons from the Lumetra Collaborative into their Diabetes Care Program, Torrance Memorial made measurable progress in improving glucose monitoring, diabetes diagnosis and medical management of hyperglycemia by physicians and nurses in the hospital inpatient, outpatient and physician office settings.
Implementing better clinical guidelines such as standardized insulin protocols and post-operative orders for cardio-thoracic patients, and outreach interventions such as Standards of Care tracking forms for physicians offices resulted in significant improvement of glycemic control in the inpatient setting after one year.
In February 2004, at the beginning of the Lumetra Diabetes Care Collaborative, baseline data including lab values for blood glucose, attending physician, diagnoses, reason for hospitalization and other factors were collected. The baseline data indicated that 57% of blood glucose samples collected on one day were unacceptably high (over 140 mg/dl) or ominous (over 200 mg/dl) above those recommended by the American Diabetes Association. A comparative January 2005 sampling of blood glucose values on 3 days indicated unacceptably high levels of hyperglycemia in 32% of samples, a 44% reduction.
Developing a patient-friendly diabetes self-management training program for promoting patient self-care education and protocols was also a critical component of their improved measures. In the process, Torrance Memorial staff, working with Lumetra, proactively created an educational poster, which has been successfully used for improving patient diabetes self-management not only at Torrance Memorial but at facilities throughout California. The poster gives patients a simple stoplight design visual and reminder “Don’t Miss the Signals WATCH FOR DIABETES” with glucose measures indicating normal, pre-diabetes and diabetes measures to prompt patient glucose self-monitoring and awareness. This popular tool was also instrumental in reminding busy clinicians, lab technologists and nurses about the detection of diabetes and management of hyperglycemia in both inpatient and ambulatory care settings.
The patient education effort also included increased referrals to the diabetes care program nurses and dieticians for outpatient education classes and counseling. These increased referrals for self-care management have resulted in high patient satisfaction and increased communication, promoting continuity of care between inpatient, outpatient and physician office settings. The addition of a bilingual Spanish-speaking nurse specialist has also more effectively reached and engaged Spanish-speaking patients in the collaborative protocols.
Torrance Memorial Medical Center incorporated lessons from the Lumetra Collaborative into their Diabetes Care Program which currently serves over 1,000 patients per year on an inpatient and outpatient basis.
Lumetra is California’s Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Lumetra
CONTACT: Diana Parker of Lumetra, +1-415-677-2122, ordlparker@caqio.sdps.org
Web site: http://www.lumetra.com/