A higher portion of reconciled outpatient diabetes medications was associated with a lower frequency of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations, a new study found. Researchers studied adults taking at least 1 diabetes medication treated in primary care practices between 2000 and 2014 and assess the relationship between the fraction of outpatient diabetes medications reconciled over a 6-month period and the composite primary outcome of combined frequency of ED visits and hospitalizations over the subsequent 6 months. They found:

• Among 261,765 reconciliation assessment periods contributed by 31,689 patients, 176,274 (67.3%), 27,775 (10.6%), and 57,716 (22.1%) had all, some, or none of the diabetes medications reconciled, respectively.
• Patients with all, some, or no diabetes medications reconciled had 0.354, 0.377, and 0.384 primary outcome events per 6 months, respectively.
• Having some or all vs no diabetes mediations reconciled was associated with a lower risk of the primary outcome.
• Individual performance feedback to providers was associated with a significant increase in the odds of all diabetes medication being reconciled.