Background: Delirium is a prevalent and dangerous state of confusion that affects millions >65 years of age (1-3). Delirium is underdiagnosed and undertreated due to lack of effective screening methods (4, 5).  Undetected delirium in hospitalized elderly patients substantially increases mortality, length of stay, and post-discharge institutionalization rates (1-3). Beyond being a very dangerous condition [...]

Background: Delirium is associated with increased duration of mechanical ventilation, longer intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, increased mortality and cognitive impairment after discharge. Quetiapine has been associated with faster resolution but long-term use is associated with adverse effects. Patients are often discharged from the ICU and subsequently from the hospital on quetiapine without [...]

Background: Hospital-acquired delirium is a common cause of increased morbidity and mortality. In an earlier pilot study, we identified through surveys that adult medicine inpatients slept an average of 4 hours. Also, multiple factors including environmental noise, vital sign checks, and lab draws were recognized as barriers to sleep. Based on this information and prior [...]

Case Presentation: A 68 year old woman with a past history notable for recurrent urinary tract infections presents with one day of confusion, odd postures, mutism, and subjective fever. In the Emergency Department, she was febrile to 103o, tachycardic, and appeared restless, with odd purposeless movements of her extremities. She was only able to follow [...]