Sunday, Sep 26 - Expo Hall Opening
Sunday, Sep 26 - Job Fair
Monday,
Sep 27 - AWHONN's Block Party
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Title: Gestational Diabetes After Delivery, Increasing Postpartum Follow-up Appointments
Discipline: Childbearing (CB), Professional Issues (PI), Women’s Health (WH)
Learning Objectives:
Submission Description:- Identify benefits for gestational diabetes to obtain six week follow-up testing.
- Apply unique interventions to obtain postpartum gestational diabetic follow-up.
- Utilize risk-reducing strategies for women with history of gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. Women who have gestational diabetes have a 40 to 60 percent chance of developing diabetes in the next 5 to 10 years (NDIC, 2008). GDM is also associated with other unfavorable risk factors. With these adverse risks to the postpartum patient who had GDM, follow-up in necessary. The California Diabetes and Pregnancy Program, Sweet Success, has been developed and implemented for 20 years of proven positive outcomes. As an acute care, not for profit hospital, we were faced with a very low percentage of GDM patients making their 6 week follow-up appointment. With the support of our local Sweet Success program, obstetricians, diabetes educators, bedside nurses, and administration, we were able to develop a program to increase the number of women with GDM to attend the required follow-up appointment at 6 weeks. Our goal is to reduce the lifetime risk of developing diabetes and related complications among women who become diabetic during pregnancy by providing them with prenatal screening and postpartum follow-up care and risk reduction services.
Working with the Sweet Success program, we developed a multidisciplinary approach to set up follow-up care for those women who have GDM. Patients are referred to Sweet Success by their physician after diagnosis of GDM. Once in the hospital, educational materials have been developed to alert these patients of potential risks that may occur with the diagnosis of GDM after delivery and risk reduction strategies are given. Follow-up care appointments are set up with the collaboration of three departments: Mother Baby Unit, Women’s Wellness Center, and the Diabetes Center. Appointments are made before the patient is discharged from the hospital to aide in the follow-up care. Grant money was received to provide those women that go to the appointment with risk reduction tools for free.
The Gestational Diabetes Postpartum Follow-up Program was launched in December 2008. Initial response to the program has been awe-inspiring. This poster will provide a description of the program, design, and initial outcomes.
