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Latest Hospital Care Articles
Hospital Care and Diabetes Article Archives
July 2012
Diabetes affects nearly 25 million Americans, and that number is expected to grow substantially every year. It's the fifth leading cause of death in America, more than breast cancer and AIDs combined. And according to a report released last week from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), it's a disease that’s costing Americans $83 billion a year in hospital fees — 23 percent of total hospital spending.
3 comments - Posted Jul 5, 2012
November 2010
New technology is popping up all over in the medical community, from new diagnostic machines, to new ways of administering drugs, to an almost endless supply of self-monitoring devices such as blood glucose meters. But a technology often overlooked is one that could have the most impact-electronic medical records.
0 comments - Posted Nov 3, 2010
April 2009
Are adults with diabetes better able to manage their disease if they can schedule same- or next-day appointments to see their doctors rather than sticking to appointments made in advance? The conventional wisdom goes that if people with diabetes can more quickly get in to see their doctors whenever problems comes up, the sooner they can receive treatment for it. However, an Indiana University School of Medicine study of 4,060 adults with diabetes being treated at 12 clinics showed that open-ended scheduling produced no benefit and, when it came to blood pressure control, actually worsened patients' conditions.
3 comments - Posted Apr 9, 2009
March 2009
All 15 experimental coordinated care programs launched by Medicare in 2002 failed to generate net savings, and only two of them reduced hospital admission rates among patients with chronic diseases, including diabetes.
1 comment - Posted Mar 4, 2009
February 2009
Can you imagine a hospital where the floors are carpeted, so you feel soothed and protected? Where the doors open silently so as not to jar your nerves? Where vending machines are filled with fresh fruits, and the healthier the meal in the cafeteria, the less it costs? How about elevator doors covered in exotic floral motifs, or a diabetes center where you never wait more than ten minutes to be seen?
8 comments - Posted Feb 17, 2009
Last March, an 11-year-old Wisconsin girl, Kara Neumann, died from diabetic ketoacidosis (a serious complication of diabetes that results when glucose is unavailable to the body as a fuel source, fat is used instead, and toxic byproducts of fat breakdown, called ketones, build up). Kara had undiagnosed type 1 diabetes. She was never treated by medical professionals because her parents believe that only God can heal the sick. They prayed for their daughter's health, but they did not seek medical attention.
12 comments - Posted Feb 6, 2009
Concerned about the growing number of Americans who are developing diabetes, Sanofi-aventis U.S. has launched the "Diabetes National Alliance" to provide healthcare professionals with information on the standard of care for people living with the disease.
1 comment - Posted Feb 4, 2009
Back in 1993, I published an article titled "Is Noncompliance a Dirty Word?" in which I expressed sadness that people with diabetes were being blamed by their healthcare providers for not following treatment advice (1). I suggested that the patient's "failure" might really be a failure of the partnership (or lack thereof) between patient and provider. Fifteen long years ago, I challenged diabetes educators to work with medical practitioners to change noncompliance from a dirty word to a rare occurrence. So, how are we doing today?
20 comments - Posted Feb 3, 2009
January 2009
A study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine has found that the glucose control practices at academic medical centers are below par and fail to meet the current standards set by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
2 comments - Posted Jan 30, 2009
The treatment of diabetes has come a long way since Dr. Elliot Joslin wrote The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus in 1916. But Dr. Joslin's idea that diet, exercise, and insulin (when it became available as therapy in 1922) are the keys to managing diabetes remains true today. This doesn't mean that diabetes is not a complex illness requiring ongoing education and individualized care. People with diabetes benefit greatly from the services of a team of health care professionals including a certified diabetes educator and an endocrinologist--a doctor who specializes in treating disorders of the endocrine system.
7 comments - Posted Jan 21, 2009
As the 76-million-member Baby Boomer generation ages-its oldest members are now 63-nursing homes are bracing for an unprecedented demand for their services. Along with increased pressure from the sheer number of patients, nursing homes will also have to deal with the skyrocketing number of seniors with type 2 diabetes.
2 comments - Posted Jan 15, 2009
December 2008
A study published in the September American Journal of Nursing (AJN) indicates that graduated compression stockings were used incorrectly in 29 percent of the patients and sized incorrectly in 26 percent of the patients. Compression stockings play an important role in preventing the formation of deep vein clots that can result in pulmonary complications and death
5 comments - Posted Dec 29, 2008
Take this test on insulin and see if you can get a higher score than hospital doctors and nurses.
19 comments - Posted Dec 17, 2008
It should have been a slam-dunk. My wife underwent two back-to-back surgeries to treat an eye melanoma. Through the surgeon, she had obtained written permission from our health insurance company to use his services and those of the hospital where he operated. Neither was in our specific insurance plan--in health insurance vernacular, they were out-of-network--which explains why the pre-approval was mandated.
1 comment - Posted Dec 15, 2008
July 2008
“Let’s take care of the patient.” That must be the credo of hospitals that make U.S. News & World Report's “Best Hospitals” rankings, in which hospitals are judged not in routine procedures but in difficult cases across an entire specialty. In the nineteenth year of this annual review, hospitals are ranked in 16 specialties, from cancer and heart disease to respiratory disorders and urology. Out of the 5,453 hospitals put through a rigorous statistical mill, only 170 scored high enough to appear in any of the specialty rankings.
2 comments - Posted Jul 17, 2008
May 2008
Diabetes classes or visits to a nutritionist by patients with diabetes are associated with lower hospitalization rates and reductions in medical costs, according to findings published in Diabetes Care.
0 comments - Posted May 30, 2008
HealthDay reports that according to a University of Miami study, people with type 1 diabetes who received transplanted islet cells from human donors lived insulin-free for up to two years.
1 comment - Posted May 30, 2008
March 2008
For people with diabetes, healthcare is just plain more involved. Hospitalizations require extra work because you must control your diabetes during your stay, and insurance can be problematic because insurers are often unwilling to pay for what you need.
0 comments - Posted Mar 9, 2008
January 2008
As the parents of a very active and accident-prone 13-year-old son, my husband and I have had our share of emergency room visits.
1 comment - Posted Jan 5, 2008
November 2007
According to a May 2007 CNN opinion poll, 64 percent of us think that our government should provide a national health insurance program for all Americans, even if it would require higher taxes. So what's in the works?
15 comments - Posted Nov 21, 2007
August 2007
Studies have already shown that people with diabetes do worse than non-diabetics after being hospitalized for stroke, heart attack, and heart surgery. Now researchers have found that they do worse after being hospitalized for trauma (a physical injury) as well.
2 comments - Posted Aug 9, 2007
July 2007
You have made a point of checking your blood glucose and getting your annual eye and foot checkups. You track your blood cholesterol and blood pressure. But now the pain in your hip is unbearable and interfering with your walking program, so your doctor suggests hip surgery. You will be admitted to the hospital for hip surgery, not diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 9, 2007
Q: My mother, who is a "brittle diabetic," has been sent to a skilled nursing facility for two weeks of rehabilitation following a seven-week hospital stay. I am amazed and frightened at the lack of concern for and attention to her diabetes care at the nursing home.
1 comment - Posted Jul 3, 2007
May 2007
Analysis of several recent studies indicates that Avandia (rosiglitazone), a type 2 diabetes medication that's been taken by more than six million people worldwide, is associated with a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack and with a borderline-significant increased risk of heart attack-related death.
0 comments - Posted May 31, 2007
The recent ruckus over the drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) has been portrayed as another case of Big Pharma foisting a dangerous drug on the public while the overworked FDA can't keep up.
0 comments - Posted May 31, 2007
Bariatric surgery, formerly used only for treating obesity, is being explored as a cure for type 2 diabetes in normal weight or moderately overweight people.
1 comment - Posted May 19, 2007
When it comes to your feet, it’s important to know where you stand. Foot problems are the most common reason for diabetes-related hospitalizations, and people with diabetes are up to fifteen times more likely to have a lower limb amputation than those without diabetes.
0 comments - Posted May 8, 2007
April 2007
GlucoLight's continuous, non-invasive device is a novel approach to glucose monitoring in the acute care environment. Using optical coherence tomography (OCT), the device is able to measure blood glucose levels through a unique anatomical area in the skin that shows physiological changes that directly correlate to changes in blood glucose. The GlucoLight monitor displays real time glucose measurements with an initial single point calibration.
0 comments - Posted Apr 18, 2007
There are only about 5,000 practicing endocrinologists in the United States in this time of rampant type 2 diabetes, and most of those are on the coasts. According to Dr. Hossein Gharib, past president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the Midwest could use at least 5,000 more endos, but the specialty just isn’t attracting enough new physicians.
0 comments - Posted Apr 6, 2007
A British news organization reported that missed health appointments are costing millions of dollars.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2007
April 2006
On January 7, 2006, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Ava Grace Baker. She was 8.4 pounds and 20.25 inches long. It took 30 hours, but it was worth every moment. Well, almost every moment.
7 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
While people with diabetes know that they face a long list of possible complications, it looks as if there’s one more to worry about: We now know that diabetics also face a higher risk of colon cancer. However, there is some consolation in knowing that colon cancer can often be prevented with proper testing.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
October 2005
In hospitalized people with type 2 diabetes, Glucerna was found to have a “neutral effect on [blood glucose] control and lipid metabolism . . . compared with a high-carbohydrate and a lower-fat formula.”
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
January 2005
Do visits with your diabetes healthcare professional seem shorter these days?
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
April 2004
When your last A1C registered at more than 7 percent, did your primary care physician take action to lower it?
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
March 2003
"If you're being admitted to the hospital, you might want to write 'Person With Diabetes' across your forehead with a permanent marker."
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2003
If you're being admitted to the hospital, you might want to write 'Person With Diabetes' across your forehead with a permanent marker."
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2003
January 2003
Hospitalizations involving diabetes—either as the reason for admission or as a secondary diagnosis—rose 16.7 percent in Pennsylvania from 1997 to 2001.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
November 2002
It's fortunate that Gillian Larner was at her 11-year-old son's bedside in the hospital after his surgery in May 2002.
1 comment - Posted Nov 1, 2002
May 2002
Many patients who are treated with metformin (Glucophage) during hospital stays have medical conditions or undergo procedures that, when combined with metformin, put them at risk for developing lactic acidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by a build-up of lactic acid that can lead to organ damage.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2002
February 2002
Giving intensive insulin therapy to patients with elevated blood-glucose levels in the surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital significantly reduces their chance of death, even if the patients did not previously have diabetes, say researchers in Belgium. Greet Van den Berghe, MD, PhD, and colleagues reported their results in the November 8, 2001, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2002
September 2001
If you are taking medications to control your blood sugars, you are less likely to be hospitalized if you refill your prescriptions, say researchers.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
August 2001
After four years on dialysis, with no sign that he was nearing the top of the transplant waiting list, Moshe Tati decided to buy a kidney. This was easier than he had imagined. Several months previous, the name and telephone number of an organ broker had been passed, furtively, around his dialysis group. At the time, Moshe did not think he would use the telephone number. He thought he would wait.
1 comment - Posted Aug 1, 2001
April 2001
Marilyn never expected that a routine heart exam would cause kidney damage. But it did.
1 comment - Posted Apr 1, 2001
August 2000
Want to get out of the hospital sooner? Your best bet is to find a team consisting of a doctor, nurse educator and a dietitian, all of whom specialize in diabetes. At the very latest, do it as soon as you enter the hospital. Make sure the people who will be caring for you in the hospital work with your diabetes team.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2000
Dinner is at 5, but you usually eat at 7. Your attending doctor does not do the same things as you and your diabetes team. Your attending doctor knows you have a diabetes specialist but does not call the specialist. You routinely eat a bedtime snack, but nobody in the hospital brings you one. The insulin you use is Humalog, but it is not on the formulary. Neither is your ACE inhibitor.
2 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2000
April 2000
Kaiser Permanente, a health maintenance organization, is offering an approach to care known as Diabetes Population Care Management. This system gathers comprehensive information about all aspects of a patient's medical treatments.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2000
August 1999
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) reports that 11 percent of serious medication errors involve insulin misadministration. The errors most commonly occur when an overdose is given, or when insulin is mistakenly administered in place of other medications. The direct cost of an inpatient adverse drug reaction can range from $1,900 to $5,900.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
April 1998
Adjusting to diabetes can be tough. But for teenage girls with diabetes it can be potentially fatal. Researchers have found that societal influences on teen boys and girls can affect their diabetes, and that in most cases girls suffer the most from these influences.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1998
February 1998
Diabetes care teams consisting of a diabetes nurse educator and an endocrinologist can make days of difference according to research in October's Diabetes Care.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1998
July 1997
In addition to their many lifesaving skills, paramedics must also have expertise in treating people with diabetes in emergency situations. For instance, about once a year 36-year-old Craig Lloyd's sugars plunge unexpectedly into the 30s and he loses consciousness.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1997
April 1997
During a recent trip to visit my sister and brother-in-law I hit a piece of metal on the interstate and my front left tire was ruined. Changing the tire wasn't a difficult process, but it used energy that was not accounted for in my calculations of exercise, insulin and food intake.
2 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1997
September 1995
A study of 905 patients at a private endocrinology practice in Nashville was conducted to determine hospital admission statistics among people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1995