Improving Patient Outcomes with an Emergency Department Delirium Screening Protocol - Abstract
Emergency department (ED) patients with delirium have an increased risk for mortality, length of stay, financial burden, decreased functional status, and need for long term care. The implementation of a delirium protocol can aide in early detection of delirium, appropriate treatments, which are expected to improve outcomes of patients with delirium who present to the ED. This article will discuss the background and significance of delirium and the processes taken to develop and implement an ED delirium treatment program as a quality improvement project.