Aim
We recently introduced excursions of blood glucose levels outside the normal range (70 mg/dL to 180 mg/dL) as a measure of glucose control in inpatient settings. We here investigate the clinical utility of this metric, and hypothesize that inpatients experiencing excursions incur increased lengths of stay and total costs compared to patients under successful glucose control.
Methods
Glucometric data were collected from 2023 inpatients from a San Diego hospital between 2009 and 2011. APRDRG codes were consolidated into 11 entry classes and combined with severity illness codes for subsequent analyses. General linear models for length of stay and total costs were devised, based on patient demographic and clinical characteristics as well as occurrences of excursions >180 or <70 mg/dL or both.
Results
Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study cohort have been reported previously. Median Length of Stay (LOS) was 5.0 days (range 1.1 to 139.4 days, interquartile range 5.6 days); median total cost was $15.7K (range $2.7K to $508.4K, IQ range $19.7K). LOS was not significantly related to gender (F1,2000=0.85, p=0.36) or ethnicity (F3,2000=0.86, p=0.46), but was significantly dependent on entry class (F10,2000=29.57, p<10-12), severity (F3,2000=219.14, p<10-12), age (F2,2000=6.60, p=0.0014) and occurrence of excursions (F3,2000=31.68, p<10-12). Similarly, total costs were not significantly related to gender (F1,2000=0.003, p=0.96) or ethnicity (F3,2000=2.28, p=0.08), but was significantly dependent on entry class (F10,2000=44.68, p<10-12), severity (F3,2000=272.38, p<10-12), age (F2,2000=17.32, p<10-7) and occurrence of excursions (F3,2000=22.30, p<10-12).
Conclusion
After adjusting for entry class, severity of illness, and age, patients exhibiting maximal glucose variability incur longer lengths of stay and higher total costs than other patients.
APR-DRGs - All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Groups
EMR - Electronic Medical Record
POC - Point of Care
LOS - Length of Stay
The diabetes population is expected to at least double in the next 25 years and the cost of treating the disease will nearly triple, as hospitalizations associated with diabetes continue to rise [1,2]. Hyperglycemia in the hospital environment is associated with higher rates of complications, longer lengths of stay and higher mortality rates [3-12]. Improved glucose management has been demonstrated to reduce length of stay and improve morbidity and mortality outcomes [13-18]. In the current environment of increased reporting of quality outcomes, it remains critically important for health care systems to have the capacity to monitor glucose management and to set appropriate targets to minimize complications and costs. Healthcare systems across the nation face serious challenges when managing blood glucose levels in high-risk, hospitalized patients and often this care is suboptimal [19-21]. Although standardized, evidence-based protocols and team management models have the potential to improve care delivery and quality outcomes in glucose management, there never the less remain formidable barriers to the system-wide implementation of these approaches. Moreover, a standardized metric is needed to assess and compare the efficacy and safety of these glucose management interventions.
The Society for Hospital Medicine provides guidelines for tracking glucose control in the hospital environment, but these have not been adopted consistently across health systems [22,23]. The most commonly used metrics include a day- or stay-weighted mean of glucose values using Point of Care (POC) measurements [24]. These averages provide summaries of glucose control, but may fail to fully capture important aspects of individual patient experiences, such as hyper- or hypoglycemic events and/or glucose variability. Indeed, glucose variability has been linked with mortality and thus has been proposed as an important indicator of blood glucose management [25].
In a previous paper [26], we introduced a simple metric of glucose variability in the hospital setting, namely, glucose excursions. We examined this metric using data from a two year observational study of glucose management in a San Diego community hospital, focusing on the initial validation of this new glucometric monitoring method. In this paper, we consider the issue of whether there is any association between our proposed metric and clinical and economic outcomes; in other words, what is the clinical merit or utility of our metric? At the outset, our working hypothesis is that inpatients experiencing excursions incur increased lengths of stay and total costs compared to patients under successful glucose control.
FemalesN (%) | MalesN (%) | TotalN | |
Gender | 988 (48.8%) | 1,035 (51.2%) | 2,023 |
Ethnicity | |||
African American | 23 (2.3%) | 29 (2.8%) | 52 |
Asian/Pacific Islander | 45 (4.6%) | 45 (4.3%) | 90 |
White | 849 (85.9%) | 890 (86.0%) | 1,739 |
Other/Unknown | 71 (7.2%) | 71 (6.9%) | 142 |
Age (Years)1 | 73 (20 to 100) | 70 (19 to 100) | 72 (19 to 100) |
<65 | 340 (34.4%) | 375 (36.2%) | 715 |
65-79 | 290 (29.4%) | 351 (33.9%) | 641 |
≥80 | 358 (36.2%) | 309 (29.9%) | 667 |
BMI 1,2 | 27.1 (15.1 - 59.9) | 27.1 (15.8 - 60.0) | 27.1 (15.1 - 60.0) |
Underweight (BMI <18.5) | 45 (5.5%) | 11 (1.3%) | 56 |
Normal Weight (18.5 ≤ BMI <25.0) | 251 (30.5%) | 265 (31.2%) | 516 |
Overweight (25.0 ≤ BMI <30.030.0) | 234 (28.4%) | 308 (36.2%) | 542 |
Obese (BMI ≥30.0) | 293 (35.6%) | 266 (31.3%) | 559 |
Severity of Illness | |||
Minor | 75 (7.6%) | 77 (7.4%) | 152 |
Moderate | 310 (31.4%) | 282 (27.2%) | 592 |
Major | 423 (42.8%) | 468 (45.3%) | 891 |
Extreme | 180 (18.2%) | 208 (20.1%) | 388 |
Length of Stay (Days)1 | 5.0 (1.1 - 59.4) | 5.0 (1.1 - 139.4) | 5.0 (1.1 - 139.4) |
Primary Reason for Admission | |||
Cancer/Oncology | 39 (3.9%) | 27 (2.6%) | 66 |
Cardiovascular | 192 (19.4%) | 228 (22.0%) | 420 |
Diabetes | 30 (3.0%) | 29 (2.8%) | 59 |
GI Disease - Nonsurgical | 64 (6.5%) | 76 (7.3%) | 140 |
Infections | 191 (19.3%) | 187 (18.1%) | 378 |
Neurological - Nonsurgical | 44 (4.5%) | 38 (3.7%) | 82 |
Pulmonary | 83 (8.4%) | 73 (7.0%) | 156 |
Rehabilitation | 31 (3.1%) | 59 (5.8%) | 90 |
Renal Disease - Nonsurgical | 21 (2.1%) | 38 (3.7%) | 59 |
Surgical Procedures | 231 (23.4%) | 214 (20.7%) | 445 |
Other | 62 (6.3%) | 66 (6.4%) | 128 |
Excursions3 | |||
None | 303 (30.7%) | 336 (32.5%) | 639 |
LT70 | 13 (1.3%) | 24 (2.3%) | 37 |
GT180 | 549 (55.6%) | 585 (56.5%) | 1134 |
LT70 and GT180 | 123 (12.4%) | 90 (8.7%) | 213 |
Tests of Between-Subjects Effects | |||||
Dependent Variable: log (LOS_days) | |||||
Source | Type III Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. |
Corrected Model | 71.345a | 22 | 3.243 | 55.798 | .000 |
Intercept | 116.284 | 1 | 116.284 | 2000.789 | .000 |
Gender | .049 | 1 | .049 | .851 | .356 |
Ethnicity | .151 | 3 | .050 | .864 | .459 |
Age | .767 | 2 | .384 | 6.602 | .001 |
Entry Class | 17.188 | 10 | 1.719 | 29.574 | .000 |
Sev Illness | 38.209 | 3 | 12.736 | 219.141 | .000 |
Excursions | 5.523 | 3 | 1.841 | 31.676 | .000 |
Error | 116.238 | 2000 | .058 | ||
Total | 1307.333 | 2023 | |||
Corrected Total | 187.583 | 2022 |
Tests of Between-Subjects Effects | |||||
Dependent Variable: LogTotCost | |||||
Source | Type III Sum of Squares | df | Mean Square | F | Sig. |
Corrected Model | 108.325a | 22 | 4.924 | 67.103 | .000 |
Intercept | 3817.164 | 1 | 3817.164 | 52020.476 | .000 |
Gender | .000 | 1 | .000 | .003 | .959 |
Ethnicity | .501 | 3 | .167 | 2.277 | .078 |
Age | 2.542 | 2 | 1.271 | 17.321 | .000 |
Entry class | 32.787 | 10 | 3.279 | 44.682 | .000 |
Sev Illness | 59.948 | 3 | 19.983 | 272.327 | .000 |
Excursions | 4.909 | 3 | 1.636 | 22.301 | .000 |
Error | 146.756 | 2000 | .073 | ||
Total | 36739.388 | 2023 | |||
Corrected Total | 255.081 | 2022 |
We had previously proposed [26] a metric of glucose variability based on excursions of individual patient glucose levels outside a targeted range (70 to 180 mg/dL), that might be used systematically and in a complementary fashion to trigger or evaluate interventions established to improve glucose management. In this paper we examined the merit and utility of this metric, and found that patients who experienced excursions in glucose levels both below 70 mg/dL and above 180 mg/dL had longer lengths of stay and total costs than other patients, even after controlling for other potential risk factors in a multivariable analysis. This is not a surprising finding [29] in so far as the range of a patient’s observed glucose levels during hospitalization is a marker of glycemic variability, patients with maximal glucose variability incur longer lengths of stay and total costs than other patients.
Neither gender nor ethnicity was significantly related to either lengths of stay or total costs in our cohort, even though both factors seem to be associated with lengths of stay for particular diseases [30,31]. That DRG and severity of disease are related to lengths of stay and costs is unsurprising, but the inverse relationship between age and the outcome variables is unexpected. These data were collected prior to the introduction of widespread government-mandated healthcare coverage for most Americans, and we speculate that the age associations might well be different if this study were conducted more recently.
Our method of analysis, entailing general linear models with several covariates regressed on the log transformed outcome variables of interest, lengths of stay and total costs, is fairly straight forward, although alternative methods of analysis [e.g., negative binomial regression as in [26] on the untransformed outcome variables] are available. The analyses can establish the joint statistical significance of the various factors as putative predictors of the outcomes in this regard we consistently found that age, entry class, severity of illness and excursions [but not gender or ethnicity] were jointly significant predictors of lengths of stay and total costs. We caution that the exceptionally small p-values for the main effects entry class, severity of illness, and excursions are also reflective of our large sample size (which is nominally a strength of our study). Hence our primary focus was comparison of the levels of each factor relative to outcomes. Lengths of stay and total costs were highly correlated, so that the high level of concordance [both statistical significance and orderings of levels] between the two analyses is unexceptional.
Several limitations should be considered in the interpretation of our findings. (i) First, due to the observational nature of this study, blood glucose monitoring was not necessarily comprehensive and we may have missed individual patient excursions. Future studies should consider more systematic daily monitoring schemes, for example through the use of continuous glucose monitors. (ii) We introduced potential predictor variables for lengths of stay and total costs in Section 2, but there are clearly other variables that could influence glucose levels and variability - e.g., diabetic status, administration of glucose altering medications such as insulin or gluco corticosteroids, total parenteral nutrition, eating and activity patterns during hospitalization. Such detailed information was unavailable to us. (iii) Unfortunately, much of the available BMI data was unreliable or erroneous, so we could not include BMI as a potential covariate in our models. The electronic record system implemented at this hospital did not preclude the most common error we uncovered, namely, heights being entered in inches or occasionally feet rather than cm and weights recorded in pounds rather than kg. We consider the summary statistics on BMI we reported in table 1 to be based on “reliable” BMIs from our database, but we were reluctant to restrict subsequent analyses to a subset of our original cohort based on reliable BMIs. Nevertheless, we recognize that BMI may also be significantly related to lengths of stay and total costs [32]. (iv) Lastly, this analysis was based on one hospital sample and examined a single metric of glucose variability. Moving forward, research should examine the utility of the glucose excursion rate metric in other (diverse) healthcare systems for cross-validation purposes. Studies that investigate the additive value of glucose excursion rates over and above the information conveyed by patient-day-weighted means, and/or compare the proposed glucose excursion rate metric against other measures of glucose variability would also represent valuable additions to the literature.
In conclusion, we have found that patients who experience excursions in blood glucose levels into both hyper and hypoglycemic ranges had longer lengths of stay on average and incurred greater costs than other patients, after adjusting for age, entry class and severity of illness. This metric for glucose variability can easily be used to leverage improvements in clinical care, and may allow more consistent analysis of patient outcomes across hospitals and health systems [33-35]. We remark that age, entry class and severity of illness cannot be controlled at time of admission, but excursions are the one factor that can be controlled or influenced by hospital care. Thus an immediate implication of our study is that hospital resources ought to be targeted to limit patient glucometric variability.
The author thanks the reviewers for perceptive comments that led to improved presentation.
Citation: Koziol JA (2016) Association of Glucometric Variability with Clinical and Economic Outcomes in a Community Hospital Setting. J Diabetes Metab Disord 3: 016.
Copyright: © 2016 James A Koziol, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.