Barriers to the effective use of capillary blood glucose monitoring in extended care facilities.
Elderly residents of extended care facilities have an increased prevalence of diabetes compared with age-matched individuals living in the community, and are more prone to uncontrolled hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. Capillary blood glucose monitoring can provide essential data for managing patients with diabetes, yet blood glucose monitoring is not used consistently by many institutions that provide long-term care. Among the barriers to its use are a perceived lack of validity, a perceived or actual lack of reliability, a failure by staff to use monitoring results consistently, a belief that good control is not necessary for the elderly, and the cost. Educational programs need to be offered to extended care facilities emphasizing the significance of glucose monitoring in the management of diabetes in elderly patients.
Siegel
J
J
D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000097:blood*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012866:Skilled Nursing Facilities