A prospective study conducted by Eastern Virginia Medical School showed that patients had no diabetes-related readmissions or ER visits within 30 days of leaving the hospital when providers used the Hospital-to-Home module of Glytec‘s eGlycemic diabetes management system.
Twenty-eight people with diabetes were enrolled in the study and all of them had A1C levels above 6.5% at admission, Glytec said, meaning their diabetes was poorly controlled prior to hospitalization.
“For patients with diabetes, laying a foundation for optimal recovery and well-being following hospitalization means we need to give appropriate consideration to insulin regimens prescribed at discharge,” principal investigator Dr. Jagdeesh Ullal said in prepared remarks.
“Many variables factor into the equation: the treatments patients receive during their stay, new diagnoses or medications, their blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivities. Understandably, this can be challenging for physicians who don’t practice in the field of endocrinology, which is why so many patients with diabetes are discharged home with no change to the insulin regimen they were on prior to hospitalization. The study suggests that an evidence-based software solution like Glytec’s can help overcome this inertia and be of great value.”
While the patients were hospitalized, providers administered insulin based on personalized dosing recommendations made by Glytec’s Glucommander module. The average daily blood glucose among people enrolled in the study was 152 mg/dL, down 32% from the average blood glucose at the time of admission.
Once patients were discharged, diabetes educators called them once every seven days for the first month. The patients followed a prescribed home insulin regimen as recommended by Glytec’s Hospital-to-Home module. According to the company, none of the patients were readmitted to the hospital and only one had an episode of severe hypoglycemia.
“Sentara Healthcare is accustomed to seeing excellent results using Glytec’s software, as many prior studies have showcased. Over the past several years, our data has demonstrated that with Glucommander, we’re able to get hospitalized patients into a prescribed target glucose range very quickly, and we’re able to keep them there for the duration of their stay, with very low rates of hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia and other complications,” study author, Dr. Paul Chidester, who is also VP of medical affairs at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, said.
“With this latest research, however, we were able to examine what happens to patients after discharge. We know based on current literature that 30-day readmission rates among patients with diabetes are 20% higher than patients without diabetes, but using Glytec’s H2H module, we had no study patients who were readmitted within 30 days due to their diabetes.”
“Caring for patients both in and out of the hospital is crucial to creating high-reliability organizations. It’s the cornerstone of population health and it’s a commitment healthcare providers need to make to the communities they serve,” Glytec’s VP of quality initiatives, Raymie McFarland, added. “Innovative solutions like Glytec’s H2H can help them achieve those goals.”