A Note to Nurses: Less Math and Paper = Better Care for Patients

All nurses deal with the prominent disease known as diabetes. It is a disease that effects all of us in one way or another. Either by family, friends, or co-workers, it has touched us all. As a hospital nurse for more than 20 years, I had not imagined that we could possibly manage our diabetic patients any way other than through tedious order sets and sliding scales with insulin bags, double-checks, and frustrations of locating another nurse to verify, etc. In the High-Risk Labor & Delivery/Antepartum unit I worked in, diabetic patients were closely monitored by our Maternal/Fetal Medicine Specialists (MFM) and were very much at risk for maternal and/or fetal compromise. I knew the severity of the condition, but never imagined that we could eventually treat these patients with anything but the close watch of the ordering physician. With multiple phone calls and high intensity workload of one patient (actually two), this would mean a challenging day at work to keep these patients safe and well cared for.

There is a better way to manage blood glucose and dose insulin that helps both nurses and patients. In our daily life, we are using software for everything, even very simple things such as splitting a dinner check with friends. The Monarch EndoTool Glucose Management System was designed to make insulin dosing safer for patients and easier for nurses and doctors. At Monarch, we are not taking the nurse or the provider out of their roles. Our team is made up of nurses, and we believe no software could replace their value. Instead, we support nurses by offering precise and accurate math. With EndoTool, nurses do not need to do the math. They enter the patient’s blood glucose, and after initial setup, the software has multiple algorithms that will recommend insulin doses. EndoTool was developed by a distinguished engineer/nephrologist, Dr. Pat Burgess and approved by FDA for both use in both IV and SubQ dosing. EndoTool recommends the appropriate dose of insulin based on the patient characteristics. The patent pending algorithm takes into account characteristics such as a patient’s height, weight, and type of diabetes, as well as the desired set and control range that your team has determined when implementing this program.

Imagine, the pregnant patient in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). It’s such a scary thought, and I remember how hard we worked to prevent that. My MFM doctor was already pretty intense to work with, but the DKA patients were our sickest one with two lives at risk. I was always so worried about the severely high blood glucose, but what scared me even more were the severely low blood glucose. With this software, we’ve got you covered. And, we have practically eliminated hypoglycemia. Using software to manage blood glucose for patients would have made my life as a hospital nurse easier. Bringing blood glucose into a control range at a desired pace would have helped us know we were monitoring our patients carefully. Endotool makes the insulin dosing job less burdensome for nurses. It took much more time to either make the calls to get an order, or to adjust the dose or to make sense of the orders and math. EndoTool makes that all go away; it is a true time saver for nurses.

Let the math and the software help improve the safety of patients; let nurses focus on patient care.