Development of a dysphagia cup to improve patients' fluid intake and reduce caregiver burden

Ensuring that the elderly drink adequate fluids to meet their recommended daily allowance is often a challenge, especially among the elderly in hospitals and long-term care settings. The complex interplay of biological, medical and psychosocial factors that cause the elderly to become dehydrated is difficult to tackle especially in care settings where there is a staff shortage and heavy workload. The team realised that 90% of the elderly inpatients in the general ward of a teaching hospital in Singapore were not drinking enough to meet their needs, despite the hot and humid weather. Reasons which contributed to inadequate fluid intake included human resources, environmental, patient and system factors. Strategies were put in place to improve fluid intake but were not successful, due to staff shortage and time constraints. The team ended up innovating and producing a dysphagia cup to improve fluid intake, promote independence among patients while encouraging them to drink more, improve nursing efficiency, reduce caregiver burden and reduce aspiration risk. The cup was able to meet all the expectations with good feedback from the care team, patients and their families.