[Dysphagia] Swallow Study Procedures/Time Spent

[BrightKL at archildrens.org (Bright, Karen L)]

I am interested in feedback from those on the list serve who do swallow
studies. 
 
I am in a pediatric hospital setting and a large majority of our case
load is doing swallow studies for both in and out patients. In the
interest of teaching and training new employees as our staff increased
from 2 SLPs to 12 who do studies over the past years (along w/ some
periods of high turn over), we went to doing our reports in a
combination of narrative within a formatted computer report that also
includes sections on history, fluoroscopy conditions, observations,
impressions to include a risk statement, recommendations, etc..Some
sections have more canned options for possible selection than others
used to trigger memory.We found that by doing it this way reports were
standardized, yet personalized and we could tell from the narrative how
well the trainees were progressing in their understanding of the study
process.  From start to finish our studies (chart review-10+ min,
interview/history-20+min, study 20+min, follow-up counseling 20+min and
report writing 30min) averages 1.5 to 2 hours. Our reports are about 2
pages long and very detailed so that therapies can be designed
appropriately and comparisons made for future studies. 
 
We know that many hospitals do a short checklist approach and probably
spend an hour total on each study...being much more efficient. I would
love to know what others are doing and how much time swallow studies are
taking start to finish. We need to know if  the time we are spending is
reasonable/helpful vs.. just plain ole compulsive.
 
Karen L. Bright, M.S. CCC
Speech-Language Pathologist
Arkansas Children's Hospital
800 Marshall Street Slot 113
Little Rock, Arkansas  72202-3591
Phone:  501-364-6914
Fax:  501-364-6659
brightkl@archildrens.org
 

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