Irish National Audit of Dementia Care in Acute Hospitals
Resource type: Research Report
The Irish National Audit of Dementia |
Admission to an acute hospital can be distressing and disorienting for a person with dementia. These hospitals currently lack standards for assessing and caring for the particular needs of patients with dementia, even though dementia may affect up to 25% of hospital in-patients at any one time.
This report, a result of the first Irish National Audit of Dementia Care, identifies 45 specific recommendations for improvement. Key recommendations include routine training in dementia care for hospital staff, the integration of appropriate psychiatry and geriatric medicine services, and the implementation of better systems to detect delirium and assess cognition on admission.
The report concludes that investing in these recommendations will not only improve the experience and outcome for patients with dementia and their families, but also lead to a decrease in the overall cost of dementia care.
Learn More
> Visit the Irish National Audit of Dementia Care website
Media Coverage
> Dementia sufferers ‘inadequately assessed’ in Irish hospitals, TheJournal.ie, 28 January 2014
> Deficits found in dementia care, IrishHealth.com, 28 January 2014
The Irish National Audit of Dementia is an Atlantic grantee via University College Cork.