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Objectives
Point-of-care HbA1c screening products are an invaluable tool that community pharmacists may use to watch patients with diabetes and enhance their overall management. We formerly reported our encounters with such devices to evaluate glycaemic control in diabetics at three community pharmacy locations in Toronto, Ontario. Here, we report data from screening well over 1000 patients at clinics held across Canada.
Methods
Community pharmacies across Canada offering A1c screening in their professional programmes were asked to upload screening data to some central database. A1c analysis was performed while using Bayer A1c Now. Patient recruitment and method of A1c screening were in the discretion from the participating pharmacies and weren’t standardized. Data collection required place during a period of 8 several weeks.
Key findings
Nearly all patients screened (59.1%) had A1c values above target, indicating insufficient glycaemic control. Glycaemic control was generally poorer among patients on more intensive treatment regimens. As many as 1711 clinical interventions were done by pharmacists. Typically two interventions were performed per patient, so we observed a pattern towards elevated figures of interventions in patients with poorer glycaemic control. The prevalence of specific kinds of interventions demonstrated an evident shift from predominantly pharmacist-directed interventions in patients with better glycaemic control towards an elevated prevalence of physician-directed interventions in patients with poorer glycaemic control.
Conclusions
These results illustrate the prevalence of suboptimal glycaemic control among diabetics locally, addressing a substantial chance for pharmacists to make use of point-of-care screening to identify hyperglycaemia and intervene to enhance disease management when warranted.
Resourse: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijpp.12228/
