The Financial Impact of an Inpatient Diabetes Management Service

CONTEXT: Diabetes is a leading metabolic disorder with a substantial cost burden, especially in inpatient settings. The complexity of inpatient glycemic management has led to the emergence of inpatient diabetes management service (IDMS), a multidisciplinary team approach to glycemic management. OBJECTIVE: To review recent literature on the financial and clinical impact of IDMS in hospital settings. METHODS: We searched PubMed using a combination of controlled vocabulary and keyword terms to describe the concept of IDMS and combined the search terms with a comparative effectiveness filter for costs and cost analysis developed by the National Library of Medicine. FINDINGS: In addition to several improved clinical endpoints such as glycemic management outcomes, IDMS implementation is associated with hospital cost savings through decreased length of stay, preventing hospital readmissions, hypoglycemia reduction, and optimizing resource allocation. There are other downstream potential cost savings in long-term patient health outcomes and avoidance of litigation related to suboptimal glycemic management. CONCLUSION: IDMS may play an important role in helping both academic and community hospitals to improve the quality of diabetes care and reduce costs. Clinicians and policymakers can utilize existing literature to build a compelling business case for IDMS to hospital administrations and state legislatures in the era of value-based healthcare.