Governance of Diabetes Management in Non-specialistic Hospital Settings

December 22, 2015 updated by: Ivana Zavaroni, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma
The prevalence of diabetes among inpatients in medical wards, surgery and intensive care units in Italy is approximatively 12-25%. The management of in hospital diabetes and hyperglycemia is complex and requires a specific training for physicians and nurses in non-specialist settings. The overall project aims at the implementation of a "best practice" model of care for hospitalized diabetic patients in non-specialist settings.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The project aims at defining a model of care for hospitalized diabetic patients in non-specialist settings based on the national and international recommendations. This is a cluster randomized study to evaluate the efficacy of a structured education training program for physicians and nurses in improving an ad hoc composite performance score of diabetes management and some clinical outcomes. The study will be carried out in 6 hospitals of the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy and it will involve 3 different wards (internal medicine, intensive care unit, surgery). For each hospital one intervention and two controls wards will be randomly identified.

At baseline the clinical management of patients with stress hyperglycemia/diabetes will be assessed in all participating wards over a 3-month period. Then, a structured educational program regarding the management of stress hyperglycemia/diabetes in the inpatient setting will be carried out only in the intervention wards. This program will last 2 months. Health care professionals also will be trained in the regular use of appropriate management tools (hyperglycemia dedicated standard operation procedures, audits, etc.).

Three months after the end of the educational program, the 3-month assessment of clinical management of patients with stress hyperglycemia/diabetes will be repeated in all participating wards.

The assessment of clinical management of stress hyperglycemia/diabetes will be based on a set of clinical performance indicators concerning 5 major domains (admission assessment, glucose monitoring, medical therapy, management of consults, management of discharge). These indicators will be used to define a composite performance score of appropriateness and efficacy. The highest score (1) will be assigned when the indicator is monitored, the lowest (0) when the indicator will be not detected, according to the scoring method previously reported by Rossi et al. Therefore, the score of each domain will range between 0 and the number of indicators used to assess appropriateness and efficacy of that domain.

Domain 1 - Initial assessment: score 0-5

  • records of admission glycemia
  • records of fasting plasma glucose
  • records of HbA1c
  • appropriate diagnosis of stress hyperglycemia/diabetes mellitus according to ADA
  • records of history of presence/absence of pharmacological diabetes therapy

Domain 2 - Glucose monitoring: score 0-4

  • appropriate glucose monitoring: at least 80% of three daily preprandial glycemia or, in critically ill patients, monitoring according to the specific algorithm used in the ward
  • presence and use of specific forms for glucose records
  • presence of ward standing orders to recognize and correct hypoglycemia
  • presence of ward standing orders to monitor and manage glucose in critically ill patients (Critically ill patients are defined as patients who require intensive care for acute critical illnesses, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, septic shock or severe respiratory failure, requiring intensive or semi-intensive therapy and, as a rule, not taking food orally during the first 24-72 hours)

Domain 3 - Medical therapy: score 0-2

  • records of time and dose of insulin therapy
  • interruption of Metformin therapy when indicated (correct indications to discontinuation of Metformin therapy were: any critical illness, acute renal, cardiac and/or respiratory failure, surgery or iodinated contrast agents administration.)

Domain 4 - Consults: score 0-2

  • request and records of diabetes specialist consult
  • request and records of nursing consult

Domain 5 - Management of discharge: score 0-3

  • planning of diabetes follow-up visit after hospitalization
  • patient education for home blood glucose self-monitoring
  • patient education for all other aspects of diabetes management

The sum of the scores of each domain from 1 to 5 is the composite performance score.

The following clinical outcomes will be recorded both at baseline and 3 months after the end of the educational program in all participating wards.:

  • all hypoglycemic events (blood glucose ≤ 70 mg/dl)
  • severe hypoglycemic events (blood glucose ≤ 40 mg/dl with or without clouding of consciousness)
  • difference between plasma glycemia at admission and mean plasma glucose during the last-48-hours before discharge
  • achievement of glycemic goals: 4 consecutive blood glucose levels ≤ 130 mg/dl (preprandial) or ≤ 180 mg/dl (postprandial), or 4 consecutive blood glucose levels between 140 and 180 mg/dl in critically ill patients
  • survival
  • discharge condition: a score of 0 will be assigned in case of death or transfer to a higher intensity ward and score 1 in all other cases, i.e. home discharge or transferral to a lower intensity ward.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1449

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Bologna, Italy
        • AUSL Ospedale Maggiore
      • Ferrara, Italy, 44121
        • Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria
      • Modena, Italy
        • AUSL Carpi
      • Parma, Italy, 43126
        • Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Parma
      • Piacenza, Italy, 29121
        • AUSL Piacenza
      • Reggio Emilia, Italy, 42027
        • AUSL Montecchio

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • patients with type 2 or type 1 diabetes or stress hyperglycemia

Exclusion Criteria:

  • age <18,
  • patients hospitalized for diabetic complications: ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar syndrome, hypoglycemic coma, pregnant diabetics or gestational diabetes

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: educational training
implementation of a structured educational program for physicians and nurses
No Intervention: no educational training
no educational training wards

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Composite performance score computed as the sum of the performance scores of all 5 domains of appropriateness and efficacy in both the intervention and the control wards
Time Frame: 11 months
Efficacy of educational training will be evaluated as absolute change of the performance scores after the intervention compared to baseline in the two groups
11 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
hypoglycemic events in the intervention and control wards
Time Frame: 11 months
rate difference of hypoglycemia events (blood glucose ≤ 70 mg/dl) in the intervention and control wards
11 months
severe hypoglycemic events in the intervention and control wards
Time Frame: 11 months
rate difference of severe hypoglycemia events (blood glucose ≤ 40 mg/dL with or without clouding of consciousness) in the intervention and control wards
11 months
difference between plasma glycemia at admission and mean plasma glucose during the last-48-hours before discharge
Time Frame: 11 months
difference between plasma glycemia at admission and mean plasma glucose during the last-48-hours before discharge
11 months
achievement of glycemic goals in the intervention and control wards
Time Frame: 11 months
number of patients that achieve glycemic goals: 4 consecutive blood glucose levels ≤ 130 mg/dl (preprandial) or ≤ 180 mg/dl (postprandial), or 4 consecutive blood glucose levels between 140 and 180 mg/dl in critically ill patients
11 months
survival rate during hospitalization in the intervention and control wards
Time Frame: 11 months
survival rate during hospitalization (score 1 for survival, score 0 for death)
11 months
discharge condition in the intervention and control wards
Time Frame: 11 months
a score of 0 will be assigned in case of death or transfer to a higher intensity ward and score 1 in all other cases, i.e. home discharge or transferral to a lower intensity ward.
11 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Ivana Zavaroni, MD, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Parma

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 19, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 22, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

December 29, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

December 29, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 22, 2015

Last Verified

December 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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