Pneumonia and in-hospital mortality in the context of neurogenic oropharyngeal dysphagia (NOD) in stroke and a new NOD step-wise concept (NSC)

Introduction: The aim of our work was to develop a step-wise concept for investigating neurogenic oropharyngeal dysphagia (NOD) that could be used by both trained nursing staff, as well as swallowing therapists and physicians, to identify patients with NOD at an early stage and so enable an appropriate therapy to be started. Methods: To achieve this objective, we assessed a uniform terminology and standard operating procedures (SOP) in a new NOD step-wise concept (NSC). In house mortality rates and rates of pneumonia were measured over time (2005–2008) in order to show improvements in quality of care. In additio…