P Vourou, N Campbell, C Nethaji, J Lim

1499 REDUCING HYPOGLYCAEMIA ON THE CARE OF THE ELDERLY WARDS: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM FOCUSED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

  • Geriatrics and Gerontology
  • Aging
  • General Medicine
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Abstract Introduction Older adults with diabetes are at increased risk of hypoglycaemia during inpatient hospital stays. It was noted that a large proportion of diabetic patients on the care of the elderly wards at North Middlesex University Hospital were experiencing hypoglycaemia so a quality improvement project was devised to address this issue and improve patient safety. Method Baseline data was collected in October 2021 by monitoring the glucose levels of 21 diabetic inpatients across three care of the elderly wards over a 72-hour period. The project consisted of 3 interventions introduced on one of these wards. The initial intervention was a poster reminding doctors to check the HbA1c results of diabetic patients. The second was the introduction of a bedtime snack for diabetic patients. The final intervention was the inclusion of a hypoglycaemia report in the nursing handover. Results In the baseline data collection 3/21 (14.2%) patients had a recorded episode of hypoglycaemia. Following the introduction of the poster, 0/9 (0%) and 1/9 (11%) patients experienced episodes of hypoglycaemia at 2- and 4-weeks post-intervention respectively. Following the introduction of a bedtime snack, 1/5 (20%) patients experienced an episode of hypoglycaemia at 2-weeks post intervention. Following the introduction of the nursing handover report, 1/8 (12.5%) and 0/5 (0%) patients experienced an episode of hypoglycaemia at 4- and 5-weeks post-intervention respectively. Conclusions The high rate of hypoglycaemia in elderly diabetic inpatients is likely to be multifactorial and therefore a multidisciplinary approach is essential. The sample size was too small to draw clear conclusions, but the results suggest that a simple nursing intervention could be effective at reducing the frequency of hypoglycaemia. The next steps will be to formally introduce the nursing handover intervention to the other care of the elderly wards and monitor its impact.

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