Case Study #1: Faster Action On Fasting Glucose
Judy Springer, Vice President of Quality/Case Management at North Kansas City Hospital shared a perfect example with us. Her institution has been dealing with cases of patients with diabetes who become hypoglycemic while they are in the hospital. She sees an opportunity for laboratorians to play a vital role in preventing this—and laments that they haven’t done so already.
Consult Consciously
The laboratorians in Ms. Springer’s hospital would do well to begin thinking of themselves as clinical consultants—and act accordingly.
Why not do so yourself? When you see a lab marker that may indicate trouble, pause for a moment. Think: what can I do that I might not routinely do? Who might I share this with? How do I bring it to their attention? How can we work together to make changes based on this knowledge?
Be an Agent of Change
According to our lab leaders, the existing IT infrastructure in Ms. Springer’s hospital could easily be changed to trigger a hypoglycemic alert at the higher FPG of 70. Think of the tremendous value a laboratorian could have demonstrated had he or she brought this issue to light. Positive change could have been effected at an operational level that might have resulted in less time in the hospital for patients, and less overall cost.
It is what we must do.