Improving the quality of care for residents with oropharyngeal dysphagia in nursing homes. ‘De Slikweg’

Dysphagia is identified in time and appropriate action is taken after detection. As a result, residents have a safe and good nutritional status and the dysphagia-related quality of life is optimized.

Increased morbidity, mortality, decreased quality of life, increasing workload and avoidable medical costs. These are the most important consequences of identifying dysphagia late and/or inefficient practice. In actual practice it has shown there is insufficient collaboration and lack of screening skills among care givers. This led to the start up of project the 'Slikweg' which aims to improve the quality of care concerning dysphagia and thereby improving the swallowing related quality of life among nursing home residents. This project has developed a signal card, an animated informational video, and a protocol to support this goal.