Check out this article:
Reuters HealthThursday, June 7, 2007
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -The care of people with diabetes in nursing homes may be falling short in a number of important areas, a new study suggests.
The study, of 11 nursing homes in Ohio and West Virginia, found that diabetic residents’ care generally failed to meet several of the American Diabetes Association’s standards of care.
Those standards were developed for diabetic adults living on their own, and not in nursing homes, the study authors note, but as there are no specific diabetes guidelines for nursing homes, the ADA standards are the primary yardstick for judging residents’ care.
For the 108 nursing home residents in the current study, that care was sub par in ways that could put them at greater risk of heart disease and other diabetes complications, according to the study authors.
They found that while most of the patients had had their blood pressure measured in the past year, only about half had their high blood pressure under control. The picture was much the same for measuring and controlling cholesterol.
When it came to blood sugar control, nearly all residents had their blood sugar regularly monitored, but just 38 percent were meeting the ADA goals for blood sugar control.
Rachel M. Holt and her colleagues at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine report the findings in the journal Diabetes Care.
“This study not only demonstrates that care of the institutionalized elderly is less than optimal,” they write, “but also that practice guidelines for this population are greatly needed.”
Based on their findings, the researchers have developed a set of diabetes treatment guidelines for nursing homes. They say they’re planning a second study that will see whether those guidelines can improve patients’ quality of life.
SOURCE: Diabetes Care, June 2007. Reuters Health
Oh boy – we would love to have Diabetes guidelines – we have had clients with uncontrolled diabetes for months – with wounds that don’t heal and infections that spread – wonder why? Not difficult to connect elevated sugar levels and difficulty healing and fighting infection.