Improving the identification of patients with delirium using the 4AT assessment.

Delirium is a common neuropsychiatric disorder that all those working with older people will have encountered at some stage. Delirium is often poorly identified in hospital settings and therefore not optimally managed. After data collection on the acute medical unit in an acute hospital trust in the UK it was evident that patients with signs of delirium were not being formally assessed and therefore not appropriately managed in many cases.