Percent of Cardiac Surgery Patients with Controlled Postoperative Blood Glucose
Why Is This Important?
Even if the heart surgery patient doesn’t have diabetes, keeping their blood sugar under good control after surgery lowers the risk of infection and other problems. "Under good control" means their blood sugar should be 200 mg/dL or less when checked first thing in the morning.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012
About This Graph
This measure indicates how often hospital staff makes sure that cardiac surgery patients’ blood glucose is controlled. The graph compares UMass Memorial Medical Center performance with other Massachusetts and U.S. hospitals. Higher percentages are better. (Graph data: April 2011 – March 2012)
How Are We Doing?
While we have consistently achieved a level of performance equal to our peers nationally as well as statewide, our goal is to reach 100 percent in this measure for all patients at all times. To that end, we continue to monitor our care to identify any incidences where we didn’t meet the standard. Every incidence when we don’t meet the standard is reviewed with a multidisciplinary team in order to identify barriers to care and implement processes to help us improve. Results are updated quarterly in order to provide the most up-to-date information.