Hypoglycaemia: Fingerprick glucose tests at triage decreased time to nursing intervention

Clinical bottom line (level 2b)

  1. Diabetic patients who had fingerprick glucose estimations in ER triage received nursing and medical interventions more quickly than those without.
  2. Time to final disposition (home or admission) was not significantly different between the groups.
Degroote and Pieper: Journal of Emergency Nurse 1993; 19: 131-133
Expires September 2003

The study

Unblinded ?concealed randomised trial with intention-to-treat
Setting: Emergency department in US hospital

68 patients (aged mean 57 years, 56% female) history of diabetes and attending ER for any reason

Excluded if
  • <18 years old


    • Control Group: (n = 38, 38 analysed): Usual care
    Experimental Group: (n = 30, 30 analysed): Finger-prick glucose assessment as part of triage

    100% followed for ?

    The evidence

    Outcome Control Group
    (SD)    		 Experimental Group
    (SD)    		 Mean Difference
    (95% CI)
    Time to nurse intervention (minutes) 24
    ()     		164
    ()     		140
    ( to )
    Time to medical intervention (minutes) 89
    ()     		165
    ()     		76.3
    ( to )
    Time to discharge (minutes) 231
    ()     		278
    ()     		47
    ( to )

    Comments

    1. Time may not relate to quality of care received
    2. Information not provided in enough detail to assess the breadth of confidence-intervals involved

    Citation

    1. Degroote NE, and Pieper B: Blood glucose monitoring at triage. Journal of Emergency Nurse 1993; 19: 131-133
    Contributor: Bob Phillips and Clare Wotton, September 1999
    Reviewer: Tadao Okada

    Clinical Question.
    Patient diabetic in emergency department
    Intervention or Exposure fingerprick glucose
    Outcome time to intervention; time to home