Quality Gaps in Screening and Monitoring for Postoperative Hyperglycemia in a Canadian Hospital: A Cross-sectional, Exploratory Study

Patients with and without diabetes who have postoperative hyperglycemia have worse outcomes than patients with in-target blood sugars. Previous quality improvement work suggests numerous barriers and clinical inertia may contribute to quality gaps in glycemic management for surgical patients. Using a framework for perioperative glycemic management, we sought to measure quality gaps in perioperative glycemic care.

This cross-sectional study used administrative data to measure the proportion of surgical patients with and without known diabetes who underwent preoperative hemoglobin A1c measurement, postoperative point-of-care testing for glucose (POCT), had hyperglycemia, and received basal bolus insulin regimens for treatment. We performed an exploratory analysis comparing length of stay (LOS) in patients with and without diabetes who had and did not have postoperative hyperglycemia.