RD&E continues to perform well in National Inpatient Diabetes Audit

The high standard of diabetes care provided to inpatients at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital has continued to improve according to the latest results of the National Inpatient Diabetes Audit (NADIA).

NADIA looks at the care of all inpatients with diabetes on a single day in all Trusts across England and Wales. It focuses on key staffing and organisational issues, clinical outcome measures and patient satisfaction levels.

The 2016 audit, completed on a day in September, shows the Trust has continued to build on its positive performance in previous years and has performed better that the national average across a number of key indicators. The audit showed that 14% of inpatients had diabetes, with a reduction in patients being admitted because of the condition (1% compared to an average of 8% in England).

In the hospital level results, the RD&E’s inpatient diabetes team scored highly for their dedicated management of diabetic foot problems and work to reduce the number of patients receiving insulin infusions.

Key highlights include:

• 91.2% of patients with diabetes had a foot assessment within the first 24 hours of admission putting RD&E in top three hospitals in England (England mean 30.1%)
• Only 3.2% of patients were on insulin infusions putting RD&E in 1st quartile (England mean 8.2%), and all insulin infusions were appropriate.
• 92.4% of patients with a diabetic foot ulcer were reviewed  by a member of the multidisciplinary  diabetic foot team within 24 hours of admission putting RD&E in the top quartile (England mean 56.1% )
• Both mild and severe hypoglycaemic episodes were below the national average at 13.5% and 6.8% respectively (England means 18.5% and 8.3%)
• 82.5% of patient said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the care of their diabetes

A number of these indicators have shown a trend of improvement since the Trust first took part in the audit seven years ago, including reducing prescription errors by 80% and reducing the rates of hypoglycaemia and severe hypoglycaemia by more than half since 2010. Both of these achievements are a testament to the team’s hard work and dedication.

Dr Thomas Fox, Consultant in Endocrinology and Acute Medicine, said: “The Inpatient diabetes team has worked very hard to improve the care of inpatients with diabetes within the trust.  We have made significant improvements in our management of diabetic foot problems with over 90% having their feet examined on admission and a similar number who have foot ulcers being seen on the first day of admission by one of the specialist diabetic foot team.

We are always striving to make further improvements and have a number of areas we are currently working on to achieve this. We would like to thank all those who are involved in the care of those with diabetes for their hard work and dedication to improving care and safety.”

The National Inpatient Diabetes Audit (NADIA) is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and delivered by NHS Digital, working with Diabetes UK. Full results can be viewed at www.content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB23539