Article Improving Delirium Care: Prevention, Monitoring, and Assessment

Delirium is an acute change in awareness and attention and is common,morbid, and costly for patients and health care systems.While hyperactive delirium is easily identifiable, the hypoactive form is more common and carries a higher mortality. Hospital systems to address delirium should consist of 3 critical steps. First, hospitalsmust identify patientswhodevelop or are at intermediate or high risk for delirium. Delirium risk may be assessed using known patient-based and illness-based risk factors, including preexisting cognitive impairment. Delirium diagnosis remains a clinical diagnosis that requires a clinical assessment that can be structured using diagnostic criteria.Hospital systemsmaybeuseful toefficiently allocatedeliriumresources toprevent andmanagedelirium. Second, it is crucial to develop a systematic approach to prevent delirium usingmultimodal nonpharmacologic delirium preventionmethods and tomonitor all high-risk patients for its occurrence. Tools such as the modified Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale can aid in monitoring for changes in mental status that could indicate the development of delirium. Third, hospital systems can utilize established methods to assess and manage delirium in a standardized fashion. The key lies in addressing the underlying cause/causes of delirium, which often involve medical conditions or medications. With a sustained commitment, standardized efforts to identify and prevent delirium can mitigate the long-termmorbidity associated with this acute change. In the face of changes in health care funding, delirium serves as an example of a syndrome where care coordination can improve short-term and long-term costs