National Diabetes Inpatient Safety Audit: An annual survey of GIRFT recommended staffing, systems and pathways
The National Diabetes Inpatient Safety Audit (NDISA) has published an annual survey on staffing, systems and pathways. Based on data from England and Wales, the report reviewed inpatient service provision and inpatient harms against the 2020 Diabetes Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) recommendations.
The report found that inpatient service coverage varied: 72% of healthcare providers provided insulin training for appropriate staff [GIRFT recommendation 8], and 72% had a self-management policy [GIRFT recommendation 10]. However, only 27% of providers had a system to identify people with diabetes on admission, prioritising those at highest risk and involving networked blood glucose (BG) meters [GIRFT recommendation 7]. Other key findings include:
- The rate of total inpatient harms decreased by almost 40%, from 26.3 per 100,000 occupied bed days in Jan-Mar 2019 to 16.2 in Jul-Sep 2021. This trend is largely driven by reductions in hypoglycaemic rescue (from 18.9 to 11.1), which comprise 69% of total inpatient harms.
- Although the Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) rate follows a similar downward trend (3.2 to 1.4), there was no apparent reduction in the rate of inpatient Diabetic Ketoacidosis or Hyperosmolar Hyper-glycaemic State.
The report makes a number of recommendations, including a call for healthcare providers and NHS trusts in England and local health boards in Wales to have a multi-disciplinary diabetes inpatient team (MDiT) and work towards providing base-level diabetes cover at weekends.
Read the full report: You can read the report by clicking on the link below.
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