COST ANALYSES AFTER A SINGLE INTERVENTION USING A COMPUTER APPLICATION (DIAGETHER) IN THE TREATMENT OF DIABETIC PATIENTS ADMITTED TO A THIRD LEVEL HOSPITAL

Goals: To quantify the savings that could be made by the hospital implementation of a computer application (DIAGETHER®), which advises the treatment of hyperglycemia of the diabetic patient in the emergency department when this patient is admitted to a third level hospital. Methods: A multicenter interventional study was designed, including patients in two arms, one in the conventional treatment prescribed by the physician and the other applied the treatment indicated by the computer application DIAGETHER®. The days of hospitalization were collected in the two arms of intervention. Results: A total of 183 patients were included, 86 received treatment with the computer application, and 97 received conventional treatment. The mean blood glucose level on the first day of admission in the GLIKAL group was 178.56 (59.53), compared to 212.93 (62.23) in the conventional group (p <0.001) and on the second day 173.86 (58.86) versus 196.37 (66.60) (p = 0.017). There was no difference in the frequency of hypoglycemia reported in each group (p = 0.555). A reduction in mean stay was observed in patients treated with DIAGETHER. The days of admission were 7 (2-39) days for the GLIKAL group and 10 (2-53) days for the PCH group (p <0.001). Conclusions: The annual savings that could be generated with the use of the computer tool (DIAGETHER®), with the volume of diabetic patients admitted to the hospital, could decrease hospitalization days by 26,147 (14,134 patients for 1.85 days of stay reduction), this would generate a saving of 8,811,842 million euros per year (cost of stay / day of the diabetic patient, for the avings days generated).