Delirium Aware Safer Healthcare

Delirium Aware Safer Healthcare (DASH) is a multi-year quality improvement campaign that builds towards reducing hospital-acquired delirium across Ontario. 

The campaign improvement bundles focused on are:

  1. Cautiously prescribing medications that increase delirium risk (e.g., sedative hypnotics [for sleep] and/or opioids [for post-surgical pain])
  2. Optimizing sleep environment
  3. Promoting discussion of delirium in huddles
  4. Engage care partners
  5. Optimize wellness during the wakeful hours
  6. Target specific diagnoses at high-risk of delirium

The campaign will continue to build, adding additional delirium interventions.

Why Focus on Delirium

Delirium is one of the leading causes of preventable hospital harms in Ontario; it impacts patient and provider safety, access and flow, and alternate level of care days. Delirium is associated with increased mortality and those affected by it have hospital visits prolonged an average eight days, resulting in additional $11,000 per hospital stay.

Who Can Participate

Any hospital that is interested in reducing or is already working on reducing hospital-acquired delirium is welcome to participate.

What You Can Do

Join a learning community that offers all participants the opportunity to learn from their peers and from experts across the province via virtual ‘live’ touchpoints. Participants can connect with their peers on an online discussion forum and in virtual campaign calls and have the opportunity to develop peer-mentoring relationships focused on reducing hospital-acquired delirium.

Get Started

Learn how to get started at Delirium Aware Safer Healthcare.

Last Updated: July 10, 2025