Abstract
Approximately 30 million people in the United States have diabetes (American Diabetes Association, 2018a). Diabetes can cause kidney damage and is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease (National Kidney Foundation, 2016). The best way to prevent diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is to keep blood sugars well controlled (Akar et al., 2017). The American Diabetes Association (2020) standards of care recommend screening for DKD with a urine albumin-to-creatinine ration and GFR at least annually. The goal of this quality improvement project was to implement a protocol for treating patients with type 2 diabetes following the current standards of care which may help to reduce patients' risk of DKD or detect it in early stages to help decrease its progression. The results showed an increase in utilization of screening for DKD with the protocol in use and would suggest having the protocol available for providers may serve as a reminder to follow current standards of care in this setting.