Medical Form - Dysphagia Screen
When I began my role as manager of the speech pathology department at Albany Regional Hospital, I identified several high-level risks, including the lack of a valid dysphagia (swallow) screen. I conducted extensive research on swallow screens, ultimately creating one with minimal error rates in the form of a medical record. The purpose of the form is for nurses to conduct a dysphagia screen on newly admitted stroke/neurological patients when an SLP (Speech-Language Pathologist) is unavailable to perform a swallow assessment. Using this form successfully reduced the risk of aspiration pneumonia by over 85%, and was adopted statewide.
