Expanding Diabetes Screening to Identify Undiagnosed Cases Among Emergency Department Patients

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes screening traditionally occurs in primary care settings, but many who are at high risk face barriers to accessing care and therefore delays in diagnosis and treatment. These same high-risk patients do frequently visit emergency departments (ED) and, therefore, might benefit from screening at that time. Our objective in this study was to analyze one year of results from a multisite, ED-based diabetes screening program. METHODS: We assessed the demographics of patients screened, identified differences in rates of newly diagnosed diabetes by clinical site, and the geographic distribution of high and low hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) results. RESULTS: We performed diabetes screening (HbA1c) among 4,211 ED patients 40–70 years old, with a body mass index ≥25, and no prior history of diabetes. Of these patients screened for diabetes, 9% had a HbA1c result consistent with undiagnosed diabetes, and nearly half of these patients had a HbA1c ≥9.0%. Rates of newly diagnosed diabetes were notably higher at EDs located in neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic status. CONCLUSION: Emergency department-based diabetes screening may be a practical and scalable solution to screen high-risk patients and reduce health disparities experienced in specific neighborhoods and demographic groups.