Background American Diabetes Association (ADA) sets annual guidelines on preventative measures that aim to delay the onset of severe diabetes mellitus complications. Compared to private internal medicine clinics, resident clinics provide suboptimal diabetic preventative care as evidenced by decreased compliance with ADA guidelines. The purpose of our study is to improve diabetic care in resident clinics through quality improvement (QI) projects, with A1C value as primary outcome and other ADA guidelines as secondary outcomes. Methods Our resident clinic at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak consists of 76 residents divided in 8 teams. In November 2016, baseline data on ADA guideline measures was obtained on 538 patients with diabetes mellitus. A root cause analysis was conducted. 5 teams developed a QI intervention plan to improve their diabetes care and 3 teams served as comparisons without intervention plans. In November 2017, post-intervention data was collected. Results Baseline characteristics demonstrate mean age of intervention groups at 60.9 years and of comparison groups at 58.9 years. The change in A1C value from baseline to post-intervention was + 0.09 vs. + 0.322 in the intervention and comparison groups respectively ( p = 0.174). As a group, the changes in secondary outcome measures were as follows: eye examinations (+ 5% in intervention vs. -7% in comparison, p < 0.01), foot examinations (+ 13% vs. + 5%, p = 0.09), lipid panel testing (+ 7% vs. -5%, p < 0.01), micro-albumin/creatinine ratio testing (+ 4% vs. + 1%, p = 0.03), and A1C testing (+8% vs. + 5%, p = 0.24). Conclusions While the QI project did not improve A1C value, it did have significant improvement in several secondary outcomes within intervention groups. One resident team implemented an intervention involving protected half-day blocks to identify overdue examinations and consequently had the largest improvements, thus serving as a potential intervention to further study. Given our study results, we believe that QI interventions improve preventative care for patients with diabetes in resident clinics. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40842-019-0084-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Dabigatran, apixaban and rivaroxaban are direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) recently approved for patients with venous thromboembolism. Therapy-induced hemorrhage remains a major complication in these patients. This study retrospectively reviews the hemorrhagic complications associated with DOACs in the general practice and the related clinical implications. The electronic medical charts of 2255 patients with prolonged PTT tests during August 2015 to April 2016 at William Beaumont Health System -Troy were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with prolonged PTT and simultaneously receiving DOAC's were identified. Hemorrhagic complications associated with DOAC therapy and the related clinical information were analyzed. 517 (22.9%) patients were identified receiving DOAC therapy. Among these, DOAC therapyassociated hemorrhages were recorded in 85 patients (16.4%). Apixaban had a significantly lower incidence of hemorrhage (8.8%) than rivaroxaban (21.0%) and dabigatran (27.9%). The most common hemorrhage was GI bleeding (7.0% overall); its incidence was significantly higher in dabigatran (18.6%) than apixaban (4.1%) and rivaroxaban (7.4%); but no significant difference between apixaban and rivaroxaban (p>0.05). GI bleeding produced anemia in 13 patients who received additional treatments with occasional blood transfusions. Since GI bleeding is the most common bleeding complication and may cause anemia in patients receiving DOAC therapy, routine studies for GI bleeding should be encouraged to reduce the complications of GI bleeding. Apixaban has significantly lower incidence of bleeding complications, it may be a better choice in patients with increased bleeding risk overall. However, apixaban may not improve the bleeding risk in patients with GI bleeding associated with rivaroxaban.

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Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs)-apixaban, rivaroxaban and dabigatran have become the first line medications for patients with thromboembolism. However, DOAC therapy-associated bleeding complications remain the major clinical concern for these patients. This study compared laboratory test results from 82 patients with and 361 patients without DOAC-associated bleeding with the goal of determining the value of laboratory tests in assessing bleeding risk in these patients. There was no age or gender difference between patients with and without DOAC therapy-associated bleeding complications. Both prothrombin time (PT) and partial thromboplastin time (PTT) prolonged at the same time showed good correlation with bleeding complications for patients receiving dabigatran (91.7%) and rivaroxaban (41.2%). When comparing patients with bleeding and those without bleeding complications, impaired renal function showed high correlation (p < 0.01), impaired liver function showed moderate correlation (p = 0.03), and thrombocytopenia showed no correlation (p > 0.05) among patients with bleeding complications. A small population of patients had never experienced bleeding complications, despite the laboratory test results being similar to patients who suffered from bleeding complications. Laboratory tests may be useful in the assessment and prediction of bleeding complications in patients receiving DOAC therapy. However, it is important to incorporate both laboratory findings with the clinical information, such as concomitant antithrombotic agents and other underlying diseases in the decision making of DOAC therapy in order to reduce therapy-related bleeding risk.