Inpatient Glucose Control

AbstractBACKGROUND:Despite increased awareness of the value of treating inpatient hyperglycemia, little is known about glucose control in U.S. hospitals.METHODS:The Remote Automated Laboratory System‐Plus (RALS？‐Plus Medical Automation Systems, Charlottesville, VA) was used to extract inpatient point‐of‐care bedside glucose (POC‐BG) tests from 126 hospitals for the period January to December 2007. Patient‐day‐weighted mean POC‐BG and hypoglycemia/hyperglycemia rates were calculated for intensive care unit (ICU) and non‐ICU areas. The relationship of POC‐BG levels with hospital characteristics was determined.RESULTS:A total of 12,559,305 POC‐BG measurements were analyzed: 2,935,167 from the ICU and 9,624,138 from the non‐ICU. Patient‐day‐weighted mean POC‐BG was 165 mg/dL for ICU and 166 mg/dL for non‐ICU. Hospital hyperglycemia (>180 mg/dL) prevalence was 46.0% for ICU and 31.7% for non‐ICU. Hospital hypoglycemia