Flourish Sound Bytes: The Surprising Challenges of Diabetes Care with Sherita Golden
•February 12, 2026
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Why It Matters
Improving inpatient glucose management reduces preventable harm and liability from one of hospitals’ highest-risk medications, while data‑driven systems and funded leadership commitment are essential to scale safer care and meet Joint Commission standards.
Summary
Dr. Sherita Golden, an expert in hospital-based diabetes care, warns that inpatient glucose management is uniquely high-risk due to acute illnesses, hospital-driven treatment changes (steroids, fasting, altered diets), and insulin’s potential to cause rapid hypoglycemia. Errors most commonly occur at care transitions—ED to floor, ICU to ward, and discharge—where unclear documentation and handoffs can produce dangerous dosing mistakes. Golden highlights how smart EHR-driven order sets, tracking glucose metrics, and targeted quality-improvement cycles can identify at-risk patients and units and reduce adverse events. She says successful programs pair these technical fixes with sustained executive buy‑in and financial investment in clinical champions, IT, and implementation teams.
Original Description
February 12, 2026: Dr. Sherita Golden, Physician Quality Improvement Strategist & Consultant at Johns Hopkins Medicine, reveals why insulin ranks alongside opioids and anticoagulants as one of the most dangerous medications in a hospital setting. From deadly transition-of-care failures to the surprising ways hospitals inadvertently create glucose emergencies, Sherita explains how thoughtful IT system design can mean the difference between patient safety and catastrophic outcomes. She shares how one simple EHR fix prevented dangerous double-dosing and why the most successful diabetes programs measure something most hospitals ignore: litigation costs from glucose mismanagement.
Key Points:
01:10 Challenges in Inpatient Insulin Care
14:21 Addressing Health Disparities
20:21 Lightning Round
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