How to Implement a Regional Dysphagia Management Program

Dysphagia is a medical condition that can affect 50 percent of stroke survivors. Patients have difficulty swallowing, and gastric or small intestine contents may back-flow into the esophagus. Signs of dysphagia include vomiting, poor appetite, weight loss, wheezing and aspiration pneumonia. Early detection of dysphagia can lead to treatment for acute stroke survivors, improving overall health from malnutrition, dehydration and heart problems. A properly executed dysphagia management program will provide a professional team of nurses, speech-language pathologists and dietitians to screen and manage dysphagia patients.

Instructions

• 1

  Plan and implement a dysphagia screening program. Recruit a regional speech-language pathologist along with a dysphagia team consisting of trained and certified administration staff, pharmacists and nurses. Provide guidelines to be followed concerning dysphagia screenings, such as nutrition assessment, the level of patient monitoring and rapid referral processing.

• 2

  Screen stroke survivors while monitoring patient identification and referrals from health-care professionals. Develop appropriate individualized dsyphagia and nutritional management. Review protocols following institutional guidelines for time management and effective communication for treatment.

• 3

  Evaluate the regional dysphagia management strategy program. Account for all timely administration of screening newly admitted stroke survivors, the availability of round-the-clock screening staff and the speech-language pathologist's clinical assessment for every stroke survivor. Verify that all necessary procedures are in place for both effective communication and management.