DIABETES DETECTION ON THE SURGICAL WARDS IN AN AREA WITH A HIGH PREVALENCE OF DIABETES

Aim. To describe the prevalence of diabetes and audit the processes us ed for diabetes detection on the surgical wards at Middlemore Hospital . Methods. By the retrospective viewing of the notes of all admissions over a 12 month period. Comparison was made with routinely collected hospital discharge data. Results. Notes from 10 893 of 11 004 (99.0%) admissions were viewed. 550 (5.0%) admissions involved a diabetic pati ent but diabetic patients were more likely to be readmitted (27.6% vs 13.5% diabetes vs no diabetes, chi2 = 61.2, df=1, p<0.001). Only 18.2% of diabetic admissions and 24.5% of diabetic patients were identified as such on hospital discharge data. No screening for diabetes was und ertaken in 34.2% of younger and 8.7% of older admissions and 7.5% of p atients had either glycosuria or a glucose greater-than-or-equal-to 8. 0 mmol/L but received no follow up. Only 17 new cases of diabetes were detected. Although no ethnic group difference in screening or identif ication of diabetes was found, in those aged greater-than-or-equal-to 60 years, 31% of Maori and 26% of Pacific Islands inpatients had diagn osed diabetes (vs 7.9% European). A similar excess of diabetes in Maor i (18%) and Pacific Islands (16%) patients was found in those aged 40- 59 years (Europeans 6%). Conclusion. In areas with a high proportion o f Maori and Pacific Islands people, diabetes, is an important medical condition to be considered in all surgical inpatients. Screening tests for diabetes need to be more closely followed up, perhaps by informin g the general practitioner of the inpatient glucose,