The main goal of diabetes home health care is to control blood glucose and prevent further complications. The aim is to lower  glucose levels back to normal range but not to get it too low which may lead to hyopglycemia symptoms such as sweating, increased heart rate and loss of consciousness. When it comes to diabetes  homehealth care, it is not only important to treat the diabetes but to also monitor the effects of treatment in order to avoid over-treating or under-treating a diabetes patient.

A reagent strip or a combination of reagent strip with glucose meter can be used in home health diabetes monitoring. Urine can also be used to measure glucose and ketones. Health care professionals also perform additional monitoring procedures on diabetes patients:

Blood glucose

Occasional monitoring of blood glucose using fingerstick or venipuncture may be administered. These assessments are used to add information to the patients homehealth diabetes care.

Continuous glucose sensors or CGMS

A small cannula is inserted into the superficial tissue of the abdomen. Then the needle is removed while leaving behind the sensor which is connected to an external device that records glucose values at 20-minute interval over a 72-hour period. A home health professional then reviews the information. Diabetes patients in homehealth usually keep a log on how they feel, what they eat and what their fingerstick readings are over that period. The data is extremely helpful for patients with unpredictably high or low blood sugar levels or for those who cannot find a pattern using fingerstick glucose readings.

Glucose monitoring has drastically improved in the last few years. There are a lot of useful tools available for diabetic patients that give them insight on their glucose patterns which enables doctors and homehealth professionals to tailor a more personalized treatment. Recent developments have made a sensor that can communicate directly with the insulin pump. The ultimate goal of these technological advancements is to be able to continuously sense what the body needs and respond by providing the appropriate dose of insulin. More homehealth devices are continuously being created for easier diabetes management.