Inpatient Diabetes Care and Education Telehealth—The Future Is Now

Jane Jeffrie Seley, DNP, MPH, MSN, GNP, BC-ADM, CDCES

Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Weill Cornell Medicine

What is your presentation about?
A virtual inpatient diabetes care and education consult service expands the reach of the diabetes care and education specialist across settings within health care systems. Technological advances in remote video communication with inpatients at the bedside has streamlined the ability to assess and execute both diabetes care and self-management education and training during hospitalization, as well as individualized preparation for discharge. This presentation will present a robust diabetes nurse practitioner-led remote inpatient diabetes program that supports a community hospital within a large health care system.

How do you hope your presentation will impact diabetes research or care?
Virtual inpatient diabetes care and education consults are a just-in-time solution to provide specialty diabetes care and education and support of diabetes technology devices in inpatient settings where there are little or no resources, especially in small community hospitals and rural areas with a lack of on-site diabetes specialists. This presentation will discuss a variety of virtual tools and programs that facilitate the delivery of remote inpatient diabetes consults, including creating a system-wide diabetes self-management guide available in five languages to standardize education; a monthly remote Diabetes Champion Program to increase the knowledge of bedside registered nurses (RNs), nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered dietitians, and pharmacists; and a virtual visit platform that is initiated in the patient electronic health record and delivered to a large-screen TV in the patient room.

How did you become involved with this area of diabetes research or care?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were no longer able to travel quickly to another campus for an inpatient consult and began to provide virtual visits. At the beginning, the equipment consisted of a rolling cart with a tablet attached to it, which was fraught with connectivity issues and the need for an in-person RN to bring the cart to the room and get it ready. Over the past four years, the program has expanded to include a much better platform in every patient room, placing continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) on high-risk individuals prior to discharge, and scheduling a follow-up outpatient visit to review data, modify the treatment plan, and lower the risk of emergency department visits and readmissions.