A pilot volunteer reader programme decreases delirium days in critically ill, adult ICU patients

• Published in: BMJ open quality Vol. 9; no. 3; p. e000761
• Main Authors: Reif, Sarah Jordan, Layon, A Joseph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England British Medical Journal Publishing Group 20.07.2020; BMJ Publishing Group LTD; BMJ Publishing Group
• Subjects: Adults; Consciousness; continuous quality improvement; critical care; Critical Illness - psychology; Critical Illness - therapy; Delirium; Delirium - complications; Delirium - prevention & control; Delirium - psychology; Humans; Intensive care; Intensive Care Units - organization & administration; Intensive Care Units - statistics & numerical data; Intensive Care Units - trends; Mortality; Older people; Patient satisfaction; Patient-centered care; patient-centred care; Patients; Pilot Projects; Program Evaluation - methods; Quality improvement; Quality of care; Readers; Reading; Risk Factors; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Short Report; Social isolation; Statistics, Nonparametric; Total quality; Volunteers; Volunteers - statistics & numerical data; patient satisfaction; critical care; continuous quality improvement; quality improvement; patient-centred care
• ISSN: 2399-6641; 2399-6641
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjoq-2019-000761

Correspondence to Ms. Sarah Jordan Reif; sjr117@case.edu Introduction Delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction presenting as altered mental status, and impairment of memory, emotion, thinking, perception and behaviour1 develops over hours to days2 and is seen in 20%–80%1 3 of adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients, depending on the diagnostic method and severity of illness. Due to the small sample size, the data were not normally distributed. [...]a non-parametric test (the Mann-Whitney test) was performed. Discussion Delirium is known to increase not only costs of care but also duration of mechanical ventilation, length of stay, reintubation rate, long-term cognitive function, discharge to a long-term care facility and patient mortality.3 5 14 Our ICU Reader Programme was a controlled, non-randomised study. The impact of delirium in the intensive care unit on hospital length of stay.