Predicting Emergency Department Delirium With an Interactive Customizable Tablet to Prevent Repeat Visits

Delirium is a common and serious complication of medical care that affects 10% of older Emergency Department (ED) patients, which unfortunately is unrecognized in up to 75% of ED patients.Studies have shown that 26 - 42% of patient with delirium are sent home. And 80% of patients sent home with unrecognized delirium are re-hospitalized within 4 days. Unrecognized delirium also has grave consequences for patient care - Kakuma showed that patient with unrecognized delirium who were sent home had 3-8x the mortality rate of patients with recognized delirium at 6 months. Fluctuating severity over time is a key clinical characteristics of delirium, making its diagnosis challenging. Regardless of cause, failure to recognize delirium means that ED staff cannot meet their patient"s needs. For example, ED staff may miss serious medical conditions associated with delirium, may not provide understandable discharge instructions or ensure a caregiver can supervise and assist a patient with delirium who is discharged. These care adaptations require staff to recognize the presence of delirium. Thus it is not surprising that unrecognized delirium has such grave consequences for patients. Thus recognition of delirium is critical to improving patient outcomes and reducing repeat ED visits. Patients with delirium may appear to have normal mental status at times, making its diagnosis challenging. High levels of service demand in the ED, plus the competing demands of numerous other initiatives to improve quality and reduce waiting times may explain why delirium continue to go unrecognized despite guidelines promoting routine delirium screening as a top priority in the ED. To address this care gap, the investigators developed an innovative solution. Rather than adding tasks to overburdened ED staff, our solution takes advantage of the long waiting times clients have in the ED for their initial assessments and between interactions with clinical staff. During these times, patients will us