Delirium: The condition impacting older patients and how UCSF doctors are treating it

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A condition most common in older adults can lead to longer hospitalizations. It's called delirium, and the treatment and prevention has become a key focus for doctors at UCSF's "Acute Care for Elders" or ACE unit. Now, the Department of Health and Human Services has a mandate for how hospitals treat elder adults.

"Delirium is hospital confusion. It happens when vulnerable people are admitted to the hospital, and they are in a new environment and maybe they are sick and their brain in not quite working correctly so they get easily confused," explained Dr. Stephanie Rogers, UCSF Associate chief of geriatric.

Being hospitalized can take a toll. Visits from friendly faces like a therapy dog named Noelle can make all the difference. UCSF patient Thomas Piling began to think of home when he saw Noelle.

"All the dogs know me in the neighborhood," said Piling while petting Noelle.

At the University of California San Francisco Parnassus Campus, medical personnel go into work with a mission every day to prevent delirium among patients.

"We are going to the ACE unit. It stands for "Acute Care for Elders." There are 31 beds and mainly patients are 65 and older. We really focus on functional decline," said Melody Luo, quality improvement specialist for the ACE unit at UCSF.

MORE: How revolutionary UCSF study hopes to help people with traumatic brain injuries

We walked around the unit and noticed this is not an ordinary hospital floor. Music and movement are viewed as medicine. It's all part of a strategy to create a comfortable environment.

Luz Pena: "I see a patient wearing a robe; I see another with a blanket. Does that help?"

"Yes, the robe and the blanket help tremendously. The blanket that smells like home and the robe that he puts on probably every morning when he wakes up at home normalizes again being at the hospital," said Dr. Candace Kim, UCSF department of Medicine Division of geriatrics.

Luz Pena: "How long does delirium last?"
Dr. Kim: "Delirium can start on the first day of admission or you can start seeing signs of it on day three or four, or even a week into the hospital stay. It can last a long time or it can clear. There is no define duration of how long it will last. A lot of it will be dependent on how sick they are to begin with."

The founder and medical director of ACE is Dr. Stephanie Rogers.

MORE: Bay Area researchers brace for Pres. Trump's $4 billion cut to medical funding

"We have musicians and pets, and we have a socialization room. We know that socialization is really good for the mind," said Dr. Rogers. "Making sure someone has a really good sleep-wake cycle. So we really focus on making sure that during the day the blinds are up in the room and the patient is getting sunlight and light, that they are out of bed and their mind is stimulating and at night making sure the room is really dark and quiet."

Bringing items from home such as photos has proven to be effective. Vicky Kleemann saw the difference when her mom was a patient in this unit.

"I had pictures all over her room of our travels and it was the dog. When she saw the picture of the dog, she was able to come back to reality because it was something she had nurtured and loved, and it opened a door for a healing process through the delirium," said Kleemann.

Units like this one have become an example to hospitals across the country.

"I'm eternally grateful. She was a beautiful, wonderful, caring woman and I miss her every day, but I do think ACE and UCSF for giving have again that quality of life," said Kleemann.

This year the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made it mandatory for all hospitals to establish age-friendly measures to receive Medicare reimbursement.