SLP - HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION

SLP - Healthcare Organization



SLP - Healthcare Organization

The practice of speech-language pathology in the acute care hospital setting has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Speech-language pathologists now routinely assess and manage patients with dysphagia as well as patients with acquired communication disorders. In practice, clinicians have tended to direct their limited resources toward the assessment and management of patients with dysphagia before addressing the needs of patients with acquired communication disorders. This practice has resulted in a decline in speech-language pathology services for patients with communication disorders and has led some clinicians to question the role of the speech-language pathologist in the acute care hospital setting. This article continues this discussion by evaluating the role of the speech-language pathologist in the acute care hospital setting within the context of the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF; WHO, 2001). It argues that by adopting the ICF, speech-language pathologists have a sound rationale for broadening their role to identify the communication needs of all hospital inpatients who experience communication difficulties in the acute care hospital setting.

Speech-language pathology practice in acute care hospitals has evolved over the last 20 years in response to a number of internal and external pressures. These pressures have included a broadening of the speech-language pathologist's role to include patients with dysphagia as well as patients with acquired communication disorders. In addition, as the population ages, there continues to be a corresponding increase in the number of older people being admitted into hospitals who require speech-language pathology services. One way governments have attempted to contain health care costs in the face of this growing demand has been to encourage hospitals to reduce the length of inpatient stay (Balandin, 2003). Therefore, speech-language pathologists are being asked to manage a greater ...