Mitigation of Postoperative Delirium in High-Risk Patients

Among patients with cognitive impairment (CI) that undergo surgery, the risk for developing postoperative delirium (POD) is high (50%) and associated with further morbidity and mortality. Yet, 30-40% of POD cases are preventable with perioperative management. This randomized pragmatic clinical trial aims to assess incidence of POD in adult surgical patients with CI, as well as provider adherence to a set of 12 perioperative best practice recommendations for perioperative management. Electronic health record (EHR) data will be used to identify patients as high risk for developing POD and clinical decision support (CDS) prompts within the EHR will display best practices. Cases will be randomized to either the control group, usual care or the intervention which includes the high-risk alert and best practice prompts.