How to Prepare Your Patient with Diabetes for Hospitalization or Surgery
Supporting your patients’ health during hospital stays starts with the right preparation—watch this video to learn effective strategies for safer outcomes.
In this video, you will learn about the following:
✔ Strategies for preoperative diabetes management and safer outcomes
✔ Why a thorough medication checklist for diabetes is essential
✔ Key steps for insulin adjustment and holding diabetes meds before surgery
✔ Navigating insulin pump and CGM protocols in the hospital
✔ Tips for effective communication and diabetes education for healthcare teams
Hospitalization introduces new challenges for patients with diabetes, especially when routines are disrupted and unfamiliar staff are involved. In this video, Drs. Edelman and Santos outline practical steps healthcare professionals can take to support patient safety and optimize glucose management before and during hospital admissions. They highlight ways to review medications, adjust insulin when needed, and encourage patients to communicate their needs—helping ensure diabetes care remains consistent and coordinated across care teams and procedures.
Explore this topic more!
Controlling Diabetes in the Hospital, with Tricia Santos, MD
Whether planned or unexpected, a visit to the hospital can cause added stress when managing diabetes—and it’s important to advocate for yourself to get the right care. Dr. Pettus is sitting down with in-patient hospital management expert, Dr. Tricia Santos, to discuss what people with diabetes need to know when going into the hospital. They’ll cover how medication doses may adjust, the ability to use devices, and how to capitalize on all the extra time spent around doctors!
Take the Crapshoot Out of Sick Days and Hospitalization
Don’t gamble by assuming your doctor knows how to treat your diabetes when in the hospital. Simple procedures like colonoscopies and minor surgeries can go awry if you aren’t proactive enough in ensuring your safety with your medical team. Just because they went to medical school doesn’t mean they know it all. Learn the key questions you should ask your doctor before going under the knife. Also learn what to do when you are feeling under the weather, from coping with sniffles, to dealing with the flu.
Don't Let Your Doctor Kill You If You're Having Surgery
Dr. Edelman and Orthopaedic Surgery Resident Dr. Todd Walker share tips on how to prepare for surgery if you have diabetes.
I work in a pediatric endocrinology clinic where our patients primarily have type 1 diabetes. We recommend that the patient self administer a mini-glucagon dose if glucoses are low due to bring NP0 if having same/day surgery.
That makes perfect sense…that way they don’t have to take anything in their stomach. That’s a great use of mini-dose glucagon.
Can Tricia please make a pre-hospital checklist based on the video to go over with and give to individuals prior to hospitalization and post on your website
We’ll work on that – thanks for the suggestion!
Thank you Sandra – I’m a firm believer in mini-dose (orange box) glucagon. Good thing there are quite a few reliable resources to learn about it
Had to take my omipod off for surgery- then running high 400 next day- hooked up my Omnipod next morning and they wanted to give me long acting- hell no! I refused. Also, another time was told by nurse I don’t get sliding scale just a certain dose. Saw my discharge orders and there was the sliding scale order- pissed! I gave myself some anyway but geez know how to read a mar!
Your story exemplifies the frustration a lot of people with diabetes have when they’re in the hospital. Thank you for sharing.