A SURVEY TO IDENTIFY POTENTIAL OUTCOME INDICATORS FOR A HOSPITAL BLOOD-GLUCOSE MONITORING PROGRAM

Objective: A survey of operators of a bedside blood glucose monitoring (BGM) program at a tertiary health care institution was performed to identify potential outcome indicators for our quality assurance progra m. Design and Methods: 170 surveys were randomly distributed to each n ursing unit. The survey consisted of 20 questions on 4 pages. At the t ime of the survey, the BGM program consisted of 514 operators and 33 b lood glucose meters on 17 inpatient nursing units servicing a total of 445 hospital beds. Results: seventy-eight percent of surveys were ret urned. Seventy one percent of operators used the glucose meter at leas t once a week, 17% used it less than once a week, and 12% used it less than once a month. When asked how often they thought operators should perform BGM to ensure reliability, 65% stated ''at least monthly,'' 8 % said ''bimonthly,'' and 27% said ''3 to 4 times a year. In the previ ous 3 months, 59% of operators recalled ''never having to repeat a BGM measurement with the glucose meter.'' 56% recalled ''never having to confirm a BGM result by sending a venous sample to the central laborat ory;'' 38% recalled ''sending a venous sample once or twice;'' 4% reca lled ''three or four times;'' and 2% recalled ''more than four times.' ' Fifty-two percent recalled having to perform a stat analysis ''less than once per month,'' 37% recalled ''once or twice per month,'' and 1 1% recalled ''once or twice per week.'' Conclusions: Through this surv ey we obtained information from our operators about the current functi oning of our BGM program. Based on this information, we were able to d evelop a list of potential outcome indicators that we encourage health care institutions with BGM programs to consider incorporating in thei r quality assurance (QA) program. Copyright (C) 1998 The Canadian Soci ety of Clinical Chemists.