Background: Specialist care may improve outcomes for inpatients with diabetes. However, research specific to type 1 diabetes (T1D) is lacking. We aimed to investigate whether automatic alerts from the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) enable prompt review of inpatients with T1D by a specialist diabetes team.
Methods: The type 1 diabetes identification (“T1DI”) initiative was established to improve identification and review of inpatients with T1D by a specialist diabetes team. A specific T1DI code was entered into the EMR of patients with T1D. On subsequent admission, the specialist diabetes team received an automatic message and generated a list of inpatients requiring review. “T1DI” admissions of more than 1-day were analysed over a 1-year period (1 January-31 December 2018). The control group was T1D admissions as coded by health information services following discharge. Analysis was performed for patients admitted to units other than endocrinology to investigate review outcomes. Data was analysed using Chi2 (categorical), Wilcoxon rank sum (continuous) and random effects logistic or negative binomial regression models.
Results: There were 136 admissions of adults with T1D over the study period (T1DI n=67, control n=69). The median age was 49 (IQR 33-64) years; 53% were females. Specialist diabetes team review was more common in the T1DI cohort compared to the control group (endocrinology review AOR 10.27, CI 2.26-46.55, P=0.003; diabetes education review AOR 7.22, CI 2.73-19.10, P<0.001). Prompt endocrinology review (no later than day 2 of admission) was more likely in T1DI inpatients (AOR 2.77, CI 1.15-6.65, P=0.023).
Conclusion: The T1DI initiative was associated with improvements in occurrence and timing of specialist diabetes team review for inpatients with T1D. This initiative could be implemented in other hospitals with EMR systems, enabling more effective identification and management of T1D in the inpatient setting.
R. Loveridge: None. N. Torkamani: None. S.L. Patterson: None. L. Churilov: None. E.I. Ekinci: None.