FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: February 17, 2015
UW Hospital and Clinics awarded advanced certification in inpatient diabetes care from The Joint Commission
MADISON- With diabetes and pre-diabetes at epidemic levels, UW Hospital and Clinics has been recognized as one of the top centers of excellence in the fight against the disease.
UW has earned Inpatient Diabetes Management Certification from The Joint Commission by demonstrating achievement of national standards and performance measures for quality and safety in diabetes care for adults and children. It is the only large hospital in the state to be so recognized. Only eight other academic medical centers in the nation are certified.
“Our team has a long-standing commitment to excellence in diabetes. With diabetes affecting more and more people, we knew this certification would not only help us recognize our strengths but push us to identify and address challenges,” said Gwen Klinkner, diabetes clinical nurse specialist. “On any given day we have more than 100 patients at our hospital who need insulin or have diabetes.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that 29.1 million Americans have diabetes and another 86 million have prediabetes (a precursor of diabetes).
Successful programs must be able to demonstrate the presence of a strong interdisciplinary team, diabetes education requirements for staff, blood-glucose monitoring protocols, treatment plans for hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia, measurements of performance improvement activities, and patient and family education for diabetes self-management.
“This speaks to the high quality of clinical programs and evidence of strong interprofessional teamwork,” said Dr. Melissa Meredith, associate professor of medicine (endocrinology) who primarily works in the diabetes clinics. “After the onsite review we were told that we should be proud of the program we have here. Especially gratifying are the high marks we received in patient-satisfaction surveys.”
“We have seen the number of diabetes patients in the hospital grow over the years. Most patients are admitted with other health concerns but they also have diabetes or high blood sugar, which complicates care,” said Klinkner. “This certification recognizes our efforts to continually improve the care we provide.”
UW Hospital also has Joint Commission certification in stroke, ventricular-assist devices (LVAD), and palliative care.
The Centers for Disease Control’s 2014 national diabetes statistical report also states one in 10 health care dollars is spent treating diabetes and its complications. Also, 30 percent of those with a known diagnosis of diabetes require more than two overnight hospitalizations per year.