Endocrine Abstracts

Optimal in-patient glycaemic control improves morbidity and mortality in in-patients with diabetes¹. The National Inpatient Diabetes Audit (NaDIA) is an annual snapshot audit of diabetes inpatient care in England and in Wales. We performed a similar audit in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda (OLOLHD, 363 in-patient beds) on 26/01/2022 and 08/10/2020. Data from all adult in-patients with diabetes were gathered using a standard proforma. Data from the OLOLHD 2022 cohort were compared to those from either the OLOLHD 2020 cohort or the 2019 NaDIA annual report using Fisher’s exact test or the independent-samples t-test. The prevalence of in-patient diabetes in OLOLHD was similar in both years (12.9% (n=47) vs 13.2% (n=48), p>0.99). Neither age (71.1 ±16.4 vs 75.4 ±12.8 years, P=0.159) nor length of stay (15.7 ±28.4 vs 13.6 ±16.0 days, P=0.664) differed between the two time-points audited. Feet were examined in 4.2% of the 2022 cohort (n=2), 6.4% of the 2020 cohort (n=3, P=0.677) and 33.6% of the NaDIA 2019 cohort (n=5.201, P<0.001). A glycaemia management error occurred in 18.8% of the 2022 sample (n=9), 8.5% of the 2020 sample (n=4, P=0.232) and 30% of the NaDIA 2019 sample (n=4.643, P=0.113). A member of the diabetes team reviewed 31.3% of OLOLHD diabetes in-patients in 2022 (n=15) and 74.7% of UK diabetes in-patients in 2019 (n=11.563, P<0.001). Despite less in-patient diabetes resource being available in OLOLHD, there was a trend towards less glycaemia management errors here. More effort needs to be put into making foot examination routine.

Reference: 1. Finfer S et al. Intensive versus conventional glucose control in critically ill patient. NEJM 2009;360(13):1283-97.