Integration of Around-the-Clock Clinical Pharmacy Specialists Into the Critical Care Team Can Increase Safety of Hyperglycemic Crisis Management

Abstract

IN BRIEF “Quality Improvement Success Stories” are published by the American Diabetes Association in collaboration with the American College of Physicians, Inc., and the National Diabetes Education Program. This series is intended to highlight best practices and strategies from programs and clinics that have successfully improved the quality of care for people with diabetes or related conditions. Each article in the series is reviewed and follows a standard format developed by the editors of Clinical Diabetes. The following article describes an effort to improve the safety of hyperglycemic crisis management at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center by making clinical pharmacy specialists available to the critical care team 24 hours/day.

Prescribing and documentation by critical care clinical pharmacy specialists with around‐the‐clock staffing: A single‐center evaluation

“…For example, CPSs on nighttime shifts are well positioned to improve the management of sedation 19,20 . In our institution, we found that the around‐the‐clock CPS staffing model helped improve management of patients with hyperglycemic crises 21 . Furthermore, a beneficial, collaborative prescribing program for emergent anticoagulation reversal was possible to implement in our facility due to the around‐the‐clock CPS staffing model 22 .…”