Delirium Words

The emergence and widespread adoption of the unvalidated CAM-Lite in EHR systems has created a patient-safety disaster by missing most delirium cases. We are now saddled with a widely-embedded, yet unofficial, unvalidated, and markedly inferior version of the original CAM that, in short, does not work. The evidence summarised in this blog indicates clearly that the CAM-Lite greatly under-detects delirium. Under-detection of delirium is associated with multiple negative consequences and, given the scale of delirium, this is one of the most impactful patient-safety issues in current healthcare across the world. We need to move beyond this blind alley and find better ways of serving our patients with delirium.