The Diabetic Foot is Filling Our Hospitals (More Than Heart Attacks) #ActAgainstAmputation

Important nationwide data coming out of Australia from our friend Jonathan Shaw and the team. We often talk about the burden of diabetes, but this study puts a hard number on the “time toxicity” of hospitalization.

The Bed-Day Burden Let’s look at the raw numbers. People with diabetes are racking up massive excess time in the hospital compared to the general population:

The Gap: People with diabetes spend 126,724 more hospital bed-days (per 100k people/year) than those without.
The Driver: This isn’t just about longer stays; it is driven mainly by higher admission rates.

The “Toe and Flow” Reality Check Here is the statistic that should wake everyone up. When looking at specific causes for these lost days:

Foot Infection is King: Foot infection is the single largest disease-specific contributor to excess bed-days.
Beating the Heart: Foot infections account for more excess bed-days than angina, ischemic heart disease, or myocardial infarction.
The Gender Gap: Men are taking the hit harder—the bed-day rate for foot infections in men is double the rate in women.

The Bottom Line Traditional complications are driving this bus. If we want to keep patients in remission and out of a hospital bed, we have to treat the diabetic foot as a medical urgency. This is a team sport.

Let’s rock and roll. 🦶❤️🔥