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Delirium Collaborative

Our goal

To reduce the severity and duration of hospital-acquired delirium in older people

Delirium is a serious medical condition where people experience sudden changes in their thinking, attention and memory, causing them to become confused, agitated or drowsy.

Usually lasting from a few days to weeks, it can lead to serious complications such as falls, pressure injuries, longer hospital admissions and sometimes death.

The best treatment for delirium is prevention – around 30-40 per cent of delirium cases that occur in hospital are preventable. However, delirium is not well detected by health professionals and is often misdiagnosed as dementia or depression.

Hospital workers from across Victoria used rapid Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to test and assess changes on the ward and identified successful changes to be implemented.

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Resources

National Safety and Quality Health Service Comprehensive Care Standard

This Standard outlines the requirements for health services to review how to screen and assess patients and ensure care plans reflect their physical, mental and cognitive healthcare needs.

Preventing and managing delirium

Department of Health lists some of the ways we can help older people and their families and carers to understand, prevent and manage delirium.

Featured resource

Identifying delirium – screening and assessment

Department of Health has published these tools to improve how to recognise and diagnose delirium.

National Safety and Quality Health Service Comprehensive Care Standard

This Standard outlines the requirements for health services to review how to screen and assess patients and ensure care plans reflect their physical, mental and cognitive healthcare needs.

Preventing and managing delirium

Department of Health lists some of the ways we can help older people and their families and carers to understand, prevent and manage delirium.

Our stories

Who we worked with

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  • Albury Wodonga Health

  • Alfred Health

  • Grampians Health

  • Barwon Health

  • Bendigo Health Care Group

  • Central Gippsland Health Service

  • Colac Area Health

  • Corryong Health

  • Eastern Health

  • Goulburn Valley Health

  • Latrobe Regional Hospital

  • Melbourne Health

  • Mercy Health

  • Monash Health

  • Northern Health

  • Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

  • Portland District Health

  • South West Healthcare

  • St Vincent’s Health

  • West Gippsland Healthcare Group

  • Western Health

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Last updated 24 June 2022