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Drinking water poses a real danger to seniors who have lost the ability to swallow.
 A stroke or ageing can take away someone’s ability to swallow and when that happens even drinking water can be dangerous.
Such patients are not supposed to drink water because their impaired ability to swallow can cause the water to flow down the windpipe and into the lungs, instead of down the oesophagus and into the stomach. This can cause lung infections leading up to severe conditions such as pneumonia.
About 15 per cent of CGH’s in-patients have swallowing difficulties.
Usually, patients are given water that has been mixed with a commercial powder thickener to make it easier and safer to swallow. However, this gelatinous glop can be rather unpalatable.
Speech therapist Sajlia Jalil said: “Patients say that the thickened fluid doesn’t taste like water and they hate it.”
The hospital found in a survey that 72 per cent of the patients disliked commercial powder mixed drinks and did not consume enough. As a result, many patients became dehydrated. After they returned home, only 19 per cent would drink the mixture. The rest mostly drank just water, even though it put them at risk of lung infections.
Now a team at Changi General Hospital (CGH) has come up with more than 60 recipes using fruit, jelly and vegetables to thicken drinks, soups and desserts for these patients. The team, comprising four speech therapists, two dietitians, a care coordinator, a senior staff nurse, a doctor and two cooks, has developed fruit purees, shakes and desserts to make drinks more palatable. Instead of water mixed with starch, patients can be fed watermelon puree, banana shakes and agar-agar drinks.
A CGH team member, senior dietitian Alvin Wong, said: “We want to improve patients’ quality of life. Even as you get older, you still want to be eating and drinking... If you have to drink starch water, it’s rather pitiful.”
Improving on basic starch water
Since the end of last year, they have been sharing these recipes with caregivers. As a result, 71 per cent of patients now agree to drink these mixes. Ms Soh Ah Kim, 54, whose 91-year-old father-in-law was diagnosed with swallowing difficulties about seven months ago, noted that he barely touches the bottle of thickened water that she puts in his room every day. She said: “Nobody would like to drink that; it looks like glue.” Instead, she adds the thickener to beverages like Milo and tonic drinks – a tip CGH gives caregivers. The team is compiling the recipes into a book to be given to patients and caregivers.
For their efforts, the team bagged an Asian Hospital Management Award in departmental service improvement last month. The award was part of the annual Hospital Management Asia conference held in South Korea from August 19 to 20.
CGH also won another award in customer service for its project to improve service at its emergency department. Other winners were Tan Tock Seng Hospital, National University Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and Singapore General Hospital.
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