hospitals, like every part of our society, have been slow to acknowledge that more and more canadians live with dementia. and slower to make changes to improve both their care and hospitals’ efficient functioning. canadians living with dementia are 50 per cent more likely to suffer in-hospital harm such as new confusion, physical deconditioning with loss of ability to walk, disability, a doubled length of hospital stay and avoidable investigations.
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patients and hospitals pay a high price for this lack of attention. it leads to increased hospital crowding – sometimes referred to as “hallway medicine” or “bed block.” patients with dementia, recognized or not, now account for almost half of all alternate level of care days – patients who have no active medical problem requiring a hospital but can’t go home.
some hospitals have implemented small-scale innovations – an emergency department screening program here; a volunteer program there. but few have identified that a large part of their core users and the main driver of their alternate-care issues are people living with dementia. and that those people and the hospital and the health-care system will benefit from a committed, tailored approach to their care.
few, if any, canadian hospitals have a system-level commitment to dementia strategies that proactively plan for the escalating numbers of canadians living with dementia who will be admitted to our hospitals. we turn a blind eye to the “elephant in the room” of those escalating numbers despite being crushed by it. this willful ignorance results in hospital overcrowding and prolonged stays and impacts users of all ages.
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an excerpt from “failing to plan for dementia is planning to fail ” by dr. frank molnar in geriatricsjournal.ca
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