Glucose Monitoring in the Hospital Setting

Have patients brought up the desire to do their own glucoses in satisfaction survey?  I am just trying to figure out how this came up and who brought it to your attention.

Sherilyn,  Yes, it came up in a few unit types:  outpatient/recent inpatient (cardiopulmonary rehab), long term inpatient (assisted living, long term nursing home care).  There is also sporadic use in regular inpatient units.  

It came to our attention from unit staff who observed patients testing with their own home glucometer and wanted guidance on what regulations/protocols to follow and when to treat (as discussed previously we decided to only treat from our hospital glucometer test system) .  Some patients, and patient populations seem stubborn (could be autonomy/personality control issue?) to not test with their own equipment, it was not an issue when I took over Point of Care 12 years ago, but the amount of patients using their own supplies (even when explaining that they will have their fingers lanced more times) has grown. 

Max, This is a great discussion.  Thanks for being patient with all my questions.  I have been POCC 20 years and I have not had one question regarding this.  I have one more question....when you train/comp staff, do you include "no treatment based on home meter testing"?  I no longer write education here, I am going to check the current nursing education and policies to see if that is included.

Sherilyn,  No worries, this is a great site for questions.  I have not had that specifically spelled out during training ("no treatment based on home meter testing") and only have statements like "before treatment, patients must have glucose tested by the hospital glucometer system, respiratory therapy or main Laboratory instrumentation"; but I like your wording and will probably include that in the future.