Multidisciplinary strategies to treat severe hypoglycemia in hospitalized patients with diabetes mellitus reduce inpatient mortality rate: Experience from an academic community hospital

Authors

Deepak Kana Kadayakkara, Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut, United States of America.
Priyadarshini Balasubramanian, Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut, United States of America.
Katherine Araque, Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut, United States of America.
Karri Davis, Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut, United States of America.
Fahad Javed, Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut, United States of America.
Pontea Niaki, Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut, United States of America.
Sachin Majumdar, Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut, United States of America.Follow
Gregory Buller, Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut, United States of America.Follow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

PloS one

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Severe hypoglycemia (blood glucose < 50 mg/dl) in hospitalized patients with diabetes mellitus is associated with poor outcomes such as increased mortality and readmission rates. We study the effects of system based interventions in managing severe hypoglycemia and its impact on outcomes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We performed retrospective review of pre- and post- intervention study to quantify severe hypoglycemia in patients admitted in the general internal medicine wards with primary or secondary diagnosis of diabetes mellitus based on ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. We implemented multidisciplinary interventions including standardization of treatment, education of in-patient medical teams and physician notification and feedback immediately after severe hypoglycemia. The endpoints were the comparative analysis of incidence of severe hypoglycemia, in-patient mortality rate, 30-day mortality rate, 30-day readmission rate, recovery time from hypoglycemia, time to next glucose measurements, use of standardized treatment and physician notification rate pre-and post-intervention. RESULTS: The incidence of severe hypoglycemia per patient with diabetes was reduced from 9.6% (233/2416) to 5.6% (202/3607) (p<0.001) post-intervention. The in-patient mortality rate in patients with severe hypoglycemia reduced from 4.1% to 0% (p = 0.019), 30-day mortality rate reduced from 9.8% to 3.8% (p = 0.058) post-intervention. 30-day readmission rate was comparable between pre-intervention (31.7%) and post-intervention (29%) (p = 0.60). In comparison, the mortality and readmission rates of all diabetic patients did not reduce during the same observation periods. Recovery time reduced from 116 (83-161) to 75 (57-102) min (p<0.01), time to next glucose measurement reduced from 39.5 (34-48) to 32 (28-35) min (p<0.01), use of standardized treatment improved from 22.7% (53/233) to 72.2% (146/202) (p<0.001) and physician notification rate increased from 29.2 (68/233) to 84.7% (171/202) post-intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that multidisciplinary strategies improves the process of early detection and management of severe hypoglycemia and reduce incidence and in-patient mortality rate.

First Page

e0220956

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0220956

Publication Date

1-1-2019

Recommended Citation

Kana Kadayakkara, Deepak; Balasubramanian, Priyadarshini; Araque, Katherine; Davis, Karri; Javed, Fahad; Niaki, Pontea; Majumdar, Sachin; and Buller, Gregory, "Multidisciplinary strategies to treat severe hypoglycemia in hospitalized patients with diabetes mellitus reduce inpatient mortality rate: Experience from an academic community hospital" (2019). Internal Medicine. 13.
https://scholar.bridgeporthospital.org/internal_medicine/13

Identifier

31393971 (pubmed); PMC6687156 (pmc); 10.1371/journal.pone.0220956 (doi); PONE-D-19-03125 (pii)