DEVELOPING A BEST PRACTICE MODEL FOR CARE OF PATIENTS WITH POLYDIPSIA

Some psychiatric patients diagnosed with schizophrenia have a secondar y diagnosis of polydipsia which is manifested by consuming excessive q uantities of fluids, marked confusion, and disorientation. In most ins tances, these persons are less amenable to treatment and rehabilitativ e interventions due to the changes in cognitive and physical processes . A review of our own current practice found that we had a small group of polydipsia patients requiring a large amount of one-to-one staff t ime for little or no long-term benefit. Further, there was no uniform approach to identify, treat, and monitor outcomes for patients with po lydipsia. ATQM team was assembled with the goal of identifying a proto col for assessing the presence of polydipsia and a care map for the tr eatment of confirmed cases. The outcome was the development of a care map using diagnostic procedures and interventions found in the profess ional literature and empirical data collected on site. A short pilot s tudy revealed that a number of polydipsia patients on Clozaril along w ith other interventions were successfully discharged from the hospital .