Patients with Diabetes Are 40 Percent More Likely to Be Readmitted to the Hospital

Low blood sugar at time of discharge increases risk of death

Patients with diabetes and low blood glucose have higher rates of death following hospital discharge, according to a study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

The cost for hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge is estimated to be close to $25 billion per year in the U.S. Patients with diabetes are frequently admitted to the hospital. Unfortunately, many of them experience high risk of re-hospitalization or even death after discharge because of factors like hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose.

“In our novel nationwide study, we examined data of almost 1 million hospitalizations at the VA health care system,” says the study’s first author, Elias Spanakis, MD, of the Baltimore VA Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md. “We found that patients with diabetes who are discharged with low or even near normal glucose values during the last day of the hospital stay are at a higher risk of dying or being readmitted to the hospital.”

In the nationwide cohort study, researchers examined 843,978 admissions of patients with diabetes at the Veteran Affairs hospitals over a 14-year period to determine the readmission and mortality rates. They found patients with diabetes experienced greater 30-day readmission rates, 30-, 90- and 180-day post-discharge mortality and higher combined 30-day readmission/mortality when they had blood sugar levels below 100 mg/dl.

“Although future studies are needed, physicians should avoid discharging patients with diabetes from the hospital until glucose values above 100 mg/dl are achieved during the last day of the hospitalization,” Spanakis says.

The study received funding support from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Clinical Sciences Research and Development Service, the Baltimore VA Patient Safety Center of Inquiry, the U.S. Public Health Service, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Institute on Aging, and the Baltimore VA Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center.