Strategies to Improve the Quality of Care, Enhance Patient Safety, and Reduce Costs to the System and Individual

Strategies to Improve the Quality of Care, Enhance Patient Safety, and Reduce Costs to the System and Individual

The priority of all health systems caring for patients with diabetes should be to provide high-quality care. The quality of care for diabetic patients can be improved by determining care interventions through evidence-based guidelines to promote the best possible outcomes (ADA, 2016). Nurses and physicians can ensure that the interventions selected in the care of diabetic patients are based on evidence-based research that has proved to increase patient outcomes and safety. Besides, hospitals can expand healthcare teams’ functions to carry out more intensive diabetes management strategies to enhance the quality of care and patient outcomes (ADA, 2016). By expanding the team’s role, health providers will be able to take immediate action without having to follow a protocol.

Quality of care can also be enhanced by providers increasing the processes of care for diabetic patients. This includes periodic testing of hemoglobin A1C, urinary albumin, and lipids levels (ADA, 2016). Providers can ensure that patients have a periodic examination of the retina and feet as per the ADA guidelines for early detection and management of eye and foot complications. Patient education resources and formal case management can be used to influence providers to enhance processes of care.

Patient safety can be enhanced by the need for adequate resources by hospitals adhering to the recommended nurse-patient ratios so that nurses can have sufficient time to assess clinical problems and potential complications.  Increasing nursing staffing will also prevent medication errors and incidences of missed nursing care, which compromise patient safety (ADA, 2016). Embracing technology in the care of diabetic patients can improve safety by reducing medical errors (Dhatariya et al., 2020). For instance, hospitals can use network glucose monitoring, enabling providers to focus on patients who have severe or recurrent hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia and enable providers to target limited resources appropriately. Health costs associated with Diabetes care can be reduced by eliminating financial barriers and reducing patient out-of-pocket costs for eye exams, self-monitoring of blood glucose, diabetes education, and medications.

Conclusion

Diabetes impacts the quality of care since it is associated with never-ending demands such as daily monitoring blood glucose, nutrition counseling, creating exercise programs, and monthly or bimonthly assessment and review of patients’ treatment plans. Associated safety concerns include the risk of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia, hospital-acquired foot ulcers, medication errors, and mortality. Diabetes is also associated with high inpatient care costs, purchase of medications, antidiabetic agents and diabetes, and physician office visits. The quality of diabetic care can be enhanced by using evidence-based guidelines, increasing processes of care, and expanding the functions of health teams. Patient safety can be enhanced by increasing staffing ratio and using technology, while costs can be reduced by eliminating financial barriers and reducing out-of-pocket costs.

References

American Diabetes Association (2018). Economic Costs of Diabetes in the US in 2017. Diabetes care, 41, 917. https://doi.org/10.2337/dci18-0007

American Diabetes Association. (2016). Standards of medical care in Diabetes-2017, Classification, and Diagnosis of Diabetes. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc16-S004