Problem
There have been several patient safety alerts from NHS England reporting serious incidents of harm due to inappropriate handling of insulin.1 From direct observation on the wards at a large, local, acute hospital Trust, practice suggested that some patients might be receiving insufficient supplementary fluid with their variable rate intravenous insulin infusion (VRIII), or no fluids at all.
To understand the problems with local intravenous insulin usage, an audit was carried out in January 2015 for patients on VRIII considering ‘safe use of insulin’. This audit showed that 48% of patients were prescribed the appropriate fluid with their VRIII.
FIND OUT MORE