Dear colleagues,
My organization is changing its insulin drip policies to provide greater safeguards. This is in response to articles in INS Newsline, and the ISMP and FDA alerts in August and September that urge hosptitals to abandon certain glucometers because of their inability to distinguish non-glucose sugars from glucose, thus falsely elevating blood sugar reading and leading to deaths when hypoglycemic patients on tight glycemic control were treated with insulin because their glucometers indicated hyperglycemia.
A fine detail of the policy changes is our monitoring of potassium and phosphorus during the insulin drip protocol. What are your guidelines for monitoring these electrolytes during insulin drips.
Art Hansen, RN