Fully Connected Blood Glucose Testing Saves Time and Improves Patient Care

Point of Care (POC) blood glucose testing at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is managed centrally at Derriford Hospital through the powerful POC data management solution from Roche, cobas IT 1000. This makes it much quicker and easier to access results and additional information stored on each system, improving quality control and enhancing the care of patients.The Trust’s Accu-Chek Inform II blood glucose meters, located across a number of sites within the acute Trust and in the community, are linked to cobas IT 1000 via wireless or hard wired connections. Section Lead for POC testing and EQA at Derriford Hospital, Tony Cambridge, explained: “With cobas IT 1000, the POC team is able to coordinate their activities centrally, rather than waiting to find potential problems on their rounds. This allows us to focus our efforts more effectively and to react promptly when any issues occur.”

“cobas IT 1000 has also helped to improve quality control. Only trained users can access the meters, which improves the quality and safety of results, and we can assess competency when the user’s certification expires. The ability to monitor QC from afar has been particularly useful with outlying areas. Rather than relying on paper records, which may not be filled out appropriately, all results are sent to us electronically.”

Immediate access to patient results by authorised personnel and the reporting functionality of cobas IT 1000 has also been invaluable at Plymouth. “Results from the Inform II meters are generated and submitted with the patient demographics, and can be monitored in real time via cobas IT 1000,” continued Tony. “Data can be extracted from the software and reports can be run to determine how tight a patient’s glycaemic control has been. This information supports clinical decisions and allows the diabetes team to assess the effectiveness of treatment. The patient is undoubtedly receiving better care.”

This function has been particularly useful in the assessment of patients admitted to the Trust’s Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) at Derriford Hospital. Diabetes Nurse, Clive Vincent, commented: “cobas IT 1000 allows me to identify potential diabetes problems within the MAU. This saves me having to trawl patient notes, which can take some time and, indeed, may not be available at the time of my visit. Blood glucose is an important indicator of wellbeing in hospitalised patients. Receiving glucose levels, along with other information, on a daily basis allows us to target potential problems and to ensure specialist involvement at the earliest opportunity. Patients can therefore be treated, transferred or sent home quickly.”