FDA-cleared software system to control in-patient blood glucose levels in critically ill patients
Adventist Health System (AHS), parent company of Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, announced that they have signed an agreement with MD Scientific, LLC to make the EndoTool™ Glucose Management System the “standard of care” for controlling in-patient blood glucose levels throughout AHS’s 36 hospital system. EndoTool™ is a highly sophisticated software system that calculates the dose of intravenous (IV) insulin needed to quickly control blood glucose levels in a critical care setting. It actively models and adapts to individual patient responses to IV insulin, even those with fluctuating insulin requirements.
“Elevated blood glucose levels can interfere with the normal healing process, resulting in prolonged hospital stays and high rates of infection. Several large studies have shown that tightly controlling blood sugar in critical care patients significantly reduces complications and improves outcomes,” says Dr. Phil Smith, Chief Medical Information Officer and formerly Chief Medical Officer at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, which piloted EndoTool™ in its critical care units. “What is remarkable is that we lowered the average blood sugar in the hospital while we significantly lowered the incidence of hypoglycemia (or low blood sugar, a common complication of treating diabetes). EndoTool™ will also allow us to implement a unified standard of care for blood glucose control throughout our medical system, maximizing our patient outcomes while minimizing the workload on our staff.” Monica Wills, Director of the Intensive Care and Progressive Care Units at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, states that the “EndoTool™ product is in full use and is very effective for our critically ill patients.”
The main component of the EndoTool™ Glucose Management System is a software program that runs on the hospital’s internal computer system. The caregiver inputs the patient’s blood sugar reading into the system and the program computes the rate of insulin necessary to maintain the blood sugar readings in the goal range that the hospital or physician has selected. The caregiver then adjusts the IV pump and continues with their other duties. EndoTool™ automatically computes when the next blood sugar reading is needed, and will even prompt the caregiver when it is due. The system downloads all of this information to the hospital information system and performs Quality Assurance documentation for continuous quality improvement. MD Scientific also offers 24 hour per day, 7 day per week Clinical and Technical support.
EndoTool™ has bee in place at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills since April of this year. It is an excellent patient safely tool, which has improved patient, physician and staff satisfaction. For more information in this product call the Marketing department at (813) 715-6625.