NASHVILLE, TENN. – Pediatric endocrinologist Cassandra Brady, MD, caught the attention of her audience at Pediatric Hospital Medicine when she mentioned that children presenting with new-onset diabetes rarely spend more than 2 days at Vanderbilt University’s children’s hospital, even if they present in diabetic ketoacidosis.
In many places, children with new-onset diabetes spend quite a bit longer in the hospital – even if they are medically stable and feeling fine – for diabetes education.
That’s not the case at Vanderbilt, where Dr. Brady is an assistant professor. Once kids are stabilized, they and their parents undergo a 3-hour crash course – sometimes even in the PICU – on diabetes survival skills, and then they’re sent home with insulin. They learn the finer points about carbohydrate counting and tight glucose control at subsequent outpatient visits.
More and more payers are probably going to push for that model, Dr. Brady noted at the meeting, which was sponsored by the Society of Hospital Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Academic Pediatric Association.
For those interested in making the transition to outpatient eduction, she explained in an interview exactly how Vanderbilt’s been doing it safely for years.
