Health Quality Ontario: New Standards on Delirium
In March 2021, Health Quality Ontario released their Standards on Delirium. They address care for adults age 18 years or older who are at risk for delirium or who are experiencing symptoms of delirium. This quality standard focuses on the identification, assessment, prevention, and management of delirium across all health care professions.
View Health Quality Ontario’s Standards on Delirium
In addition to the Quality Standards, health care professionals can access:
- Patient guide on delirium, which can be shared with patients and families to help them have conversations about their care.
- Measurement resources, which include a measurement guide of technical specifications for the indicators in this standard, and a “case for improvement” slide deck.
- Getting Started Guide, which includes links to templates and tools to help put the quality standards into practice. This guide shows how to plan for, implement, and sustain changes in practice.
- Quorum, an online community dedicated to improving the quality of care across Ontario. This is a place where health care providers can share information, inform, and support each other, and it includes tools and resources to help implement the quality statements within each standard.
- Quality Improvement Plans, which can help an organization outline how it will improve the quality of care provided to patients, residents, or clients in the coming year.
Implications for Occupational Therapists
Occupational therapists working with adults and seniors at risk for developing delirium should familiarize themselves with this Standard on Delirium.
Quality standards inform patients, clinicians, and organizations about what high-quality care looks like for health conditions or processes deemed a priority for quality improvement in Ontario. They focus on conditions or topics where there are large variations in how care is delivered, or where there are gaps between the care provided in Ontario and the care patients should receive. They are based on the best evidence. Several quality standards are available.
Occupational therapists can support the development of standards of care by being part of Health Quality Ontario’s Advisory Committee. Contact Health Quality Ontario for more information.
View all Health Quality Ontario Standards