It’s estimated that 25% of our inpatient beds are occupied by someone living with dementia or delirium. It’s vital that we are able to provide these patients with the best possible care that takes into account any additional needs they may have whilst in our hospitals, and an ongoing element of our improvement plan is to improve the dementia and delirium services we offer.
Last August following staff feedback, we changed the way that we screen patients for dementia and delirium, introducing the 4AT tool. 4AT is a shorter, more practical tool on ADT dashboard, and enables a clearer and quicker pathway for screening.
Since the introduction of 4AT, screening compliance of all over 65s within 72-hours of a decision to admit (DTA) has improved from a Trust average of 20% in August 2023, to an average of 77% in April 2024.
This is an incredible improvement in screening compliance, and we thank all staff for their commitment to ensuring that we are able to quickly identify patients in this vulnerable group, so we can better support their care and reduce hospital-acquired deconditioning. As a Trust we must ensure that this compliance rate continues to increase and that all areas are screening over 65s within 72-hours of a DTA.
One area of the Trust which has seen a rapid increase of screening compliance is the Royal’s AMU. The department has gone from an average of around 30% compliance in August 2023 to a fantastic screening average of around 96%. Mark Myers, Matron of AMU, said: “When 4AT launched, we made it a massive part of the day-to-day communications on the ward so that it became ingrained in the patient’s admission process. The team really picked up and ran with it.
“We mentioned it in our daily huddles for around three months and emailed staff about the importance of screening every two weeks. Now that the screening tool is part of dashboard it’s much easier for staff to see and complete whilst carrying out the other risk assessments such as for falls. Our colleagues who are also on the night shift will review the dashboard and identify any patients over 65 with outstanding assessments and ensure the screening is carried out. It’s a vital part of patient safety to ensure that dementia or delirium is detected early so that we can provide patients with the right care in the right way, and I’m very proud of the ward for their hard work in embedding the new process and ensuring timely completion of screening.”