Ohio Nurses Use Their Wits to Solve a Clinical Care Dilemma

When the pandemic hindered care for their ICU patients living with diabetes, nurses in an Ohio health system took advantage of new technology and a federal waiver to solve the problem.

Key Takeaways

• COVID-19 protocols severely restricted care management for patients with diabetes at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, so nurses developed a process to treat them virtually.
• Federal regulators have allowed for digital diabetes care in inpatient settings during the pandemic, but that waiver will end with the public health emergency. Telehealth advocates want to make that a permanent change.
• Nurses are on the front line of caregiving, and often have innovative ideas about how to create go-arounds and solve problems.

With COVID-19 reducing contact with patients in the ICU, nurses at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found they couldn't manage daily care for their charges living with diabetes. So, they got creative. Nurses in the medical ICU (MICU) at the Columbus health system partnered with diabetes nurse practitioners to create a digital health-based process that allows nurses to monitor patients' blood glucose levels and administer insulin from outside the patients' rooms.