2.4.0.0 Di­a­betes Care Providers in the Hos­pi­tal

Rec­om­men­da­tion

15.3 When car­ing for hos­pi­talized pa­tients with di­a­betes, con­sid­er con­sulting with a spe­cial­ized di­a­betes or glu­cose man­age­ment team where pos­si­ble. E

Ap­pro­pri­ate­ly trained spe­cial­ists or spe­cial­ty teams may re­duce length of stay, im­prove glycemic con­trol, and im­prove out­comes, but stud­ies are few (12,13). A call to ac­tion out­lined the stud­ies need­ed to eval­u­ate these out­comes (14). Peo­ple with di­a­betes are known to have a high­er risk of 30-day read­mis­sion fol­low­ing hos­pi­talization. Spe­cial­ized di­a­betes teams car­ing for pa­tients with di­a­betes dur­ing their hos­pi­tal stay can im­prove read­mis­sion rates and lower cost of care (15,16).

Early ev­i­dence sug­gests that vir­tu­al glu­cose man­age­ment ser­vices may be used to im­prove glycemic out­comes in hos­pi­talized pa­tients and fa­cil­i­tate tran­si­tion of care after dis­charge (17). De­tails of team for­ma­tion are avail­able from the Joint Com­mis­sion stan­dards for pro­grams and the So­ci­ety of Hos­pi­tal Medicine (18,19).