Using dementia flags in electronic health records

The World Health Organisation has recognised dementia as a global public health priority¹ and dementia is the increasing health and social care challenge of the National Health Service (NHS). The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimates that, at any one point in time, a quarter of all hospital beds are taken up with patients living with dementia². In healthy patients over 80 years old, time in hospital and bed rest is associated with decline in mobility and physical and social activity³. For patients with dementia, this decline is accelerated and many studies report dementia increasing the risk of death if a patient is hospitalised with emergency or acute infection^{4, 5}. A review of hospital outcomes for people with cognitive impairment reported increased risk of poor outcomes, including mortality and institutionalisation on discharge, and the...