[Dysphagia] Dehydration and falls 2

[apdfried at juno.com (apdfried at juno.com)]

I work in acute care hosp. and I'm on the  Falls Committee.  We have researched falls for one year & the most common cause of falls is slow response to call lights related to needing the bathroom.  Dehydration was not listed as a cause in any of the reports we saw.  Poor falls hx was the second largest cause since most fallers are repeat offenders.
As far as thickening liquids goes I definitely think more is not better and for years I have told students and other ST's honey thick is as bad as no liquid at all as most people dehydrate.  I'm not ready tho throw out the baby however as less thick alternatives can reduce aspiration as clearly seen on videos and reduce pneumonias as clearly seen during the few cases that pt.s who are doing fine on nectar get pneumonia when upgraded to thin without a repeat video.   Good luck to all in their tx. Dave Friedlander