Testing blood glucose at the bedside in a chronic care hospital

A prospective study was carried out in a chronic care hospital to determine the clinical indications for testing blood glucose (BG) levels at the bedside and to assess the degree of correlation between the clinical impression of the patients' BG status and the results of these tests. Most (94%) BG tests performed on inpatients at the bedside were done to monitor routine treatment and did not require the rapid turnaround time afforded by this type of testing. Clinical estimation of BG status was highly inaccurate, which presents the argument for routine monitoring but not for the immediate turnaround provided by this method. The cost of BG testing at the bedside in low-volume settings is high, and the method is periodically unreliable. These disadvantages must be weighed against the undocumented advantages of the method: shorter hospital stays and more rapid stabilization of BG levels.