HMV reduces ICU length of stay through in-hospital dentistry and speech therapy

Hospital Municipal do Valentina (HMV) reduced the average length of stay of its patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after implementing hospital dentistry and speech therapy in the service, which is a reference in pediatric care. In 2023, the average length of stay in the ICU was 17 days, while the average a year earlier (2022) was 25.

For the general director of HMV, Tânia Menezes, the work carried out last year has shown positive results. “It has been fantastic work, as many children come in with oral herpes, infections or other oral diseases that can develop, but we are managing to reduce the length of stay. In fact, it is a multidisciplinary work and has given positive results, such as reduction of nosocomial infections in intubated patients in the ICU. Mothers leave satisfied and that’s a big benefit,” he said.

One of the children who benefited was patient Luís Fernando Vieira, 10 years old. “My son was taken care of very well and here we did what until then, in the two months since he had an accident, no one had done. I just have to thank God and the whole team that took care of him,” said Tamires Vieira, the boy’s mother.

HMV dentist Lilia Van Der Linden explains that the length of stay varies from case to case, however some patients already show improvement 24 hours after the dental approach. “Through early intervention by dentistry, the duration of the patient’s stay can be significantly reduced, resulting in the reduction of hospital costs and progressive improvement of the clinical condition”, he emphasized.

Dental work takes place at different hospital levels. In the ICU, care consists of daily consultations through an intraoral and extraoral clinical examination, performing an initial patient assessment, establishing a diagnosis, promoting oral hygiene compliance, leading the multidisciplinary team, and eliminating risk factors for infection. . to carry out prescriptions assessing the individual needs of each patient.

In the surgical suite, dental procedures under general anesthesia include care for critical patients in the ICU, newborn infants with abnormalities requiring dental care, patients with systemic compromising oral disease, and other cases.

In the wards, the care consists, among other things, of daily consultations with intraoral and extraoral clinical examinations, instructions for oral hygiene and infection control, while in the emergency care is done through opinions so that each person is carefully evaluated and to ensure that the dental intervention is carried out in proper way.

speech therapy – In the framework of the multidisciplinary work that has been carried out at HMV, reducing the length of stay of patients in the ward, speech therapy also stands out, which included in the hospital’s routine the evaluation of the frenulum (lips and tongue) with immediate correction, when. necessary and the extension of laser therapy to relieve inflammation.

“By evaluating frenulums, we were able to positively influence the removal of feeding tubes, providing more comfort and quality of life for babies, as well as evaluating children reducing the possibility of speech articulation difficulties that can cause frenulum of the tongue”. Jofávia Lacerda, speech therapist at HMV.

Jessica da Silva, the mother of little João Miguel da Silva, only 1 years old, also praised the work done at the hospital. “I really enjoyed the care, it was great for his recovery. He has improved a lot since he came here, he was not swallowing anything, now he can inhale,” he commented.

Improvements – In the last year, in addition to the implementation of hospital dentistry and speech therapy, improvements were made such as the purchase of dental materials and materials, the development of standards and routines for dentistry and speech therapy, the expansion of laser therapy, the execution of ‘Linguinha Solta The project to perform frenectomies, training in ICUs and wards, in addition to partnerships with other institutions.

Service – HMV is a reference in pediatric care, clinical case admissions, and pediatric emergencies and emergencies. The hospital is a unit with open doors, serving newborns and adolescents up to 17 years old.

In total, the hospital unit has 68 beds, 60 of which are wards (54 clinical and six surgical) and eight psychiatric. The unit also has emergency services, imaging teams, a surgical suite for minor and medium operations, and outpatient clinics handling cases in the specialties of otolaryngology, pediatric surgery, dermatology, anesthesiology and endocrinology.