Insulin administration and meal delivery coordination for hospitalized patients.

BACKGROUND: Through efforts to continuously improve the quality of care provided to hospitalized patients with diabetes by evaluation of adherence to standards and performance metrics, we identified an opportunity for improvement. METHODS: A plan-do-study-act cycle was initiated with the goal of enhancing patient satisfaction with the timing of blood glucose monitoring, insulin administration, and meal delivery in the hospital. RESULTS: Despite an educational intervention with the nursing staff, patient satisfaction with mealtime insulin administration decreased from 83% to 78%. CONCLUSION: Education of frontline staff was not adequate to achieve our quality improvement goal.