Failure to record delirium as a complication of intra-aortic balloon pump treatment: a retrospective study

This study was conducted to determine whether or not diagnosis and treatment of delirium among patients treated with the intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) correlates with the recording of this complication on discharge records. Since prior episodes of delirium are one of the few clear risk factors for future episodes of delirium, accurate recording of delirium on the discharge summary and list of discharge diagnoses is useful to clinicians. A retrospective review of the charts of all patients (N = 198) who underwent placement of an IABP during 1988; assessment of the type and frequency of medical and neuropsychiatric complications during IABP treatment; and comparison of chart review findings with the Massachusetts General Hospital's computer-generated lists of discharge diagnoses for the same IABP-treated patients was completed. Only 12% of patients diagnosed and treated for delirium had delirium recorded as a discharge diagnosis. In contrast, 44% and 52% of patients who had been diagnosed and treated for cerebrovascular accident and pneumonia, respectively, had these diagnoses recorded among the discharge diagnoses. Receiving a discharge diagnosis of organic brain syndrome increased the likelihood that delirium was recorded as a discharge diagnosis. Delirium is underdiagnosed as a complication associated with IABP-treatment and is under-reported on the list of discharge diagnoses, even when it is diagnosed. Further study is warranted to determine if making the diagnosis of delirium during a patient's hospital course and recording it is a complication at the time of discharge is translated into a higher level of preparedness by physicians during subsequent hospitalizations.