When used in hospital settings, glucose meter performance issues involve analytic comparability to lab-based testing, patient and sample variables, and clinical affects such as insulin treatment protocol outcomes and morbidity or outcome risk factors. Different tools are available to assess these issues, including accuracy and precision statistics along with clinical risk measures such as error grids or simulation testing. Regulatory, guidance, and professional bodies have advocated a number of varying recommendations for glucose meter performance in different situations and under different patient conditions. These are summarized and compared, but reconciling these guidelines can be confusing or difficult for providers. Blood glucose meters are useful in the management of patients in acute or assisted care facilities, but users must appreciate the variables that affect measurements and provide for oversight that can manage risk factors and maintain meter performance expectations.
Keywords: POCT; accuracy; glucose meters; guidelines; hospitals.