Treating patients with dysphagia can be a difficult task for any clinician. A patient with swallowing problems needs additional support with activities many take for granted - eating, drinking, and swallowing.
Speech language pathologists frequently treat patients with dysphagia, and at MedBridge, we’ve seen how difficult it can be to find reliable resources for those patients to take home. SLPs often rely on print outs that have been handed down for years or personal blogs that may or may not be reliable.
To better support SLPs who use MedBridge, we've created reliable evidence-based resources for people with dysphagia. The MedBridge HEP Builder now features more than 150 exercises and education resources you can assign to your patients including new swallowing exercises, education on IDDSI levels, and more.
In this article, we’ll show you how to find these new resources and provide a few example programs you can create for your patients.
How do I locate dysphagia exercises in the MedBridge HEP Builder?
- To find dysphagia content in the HEP Builder, start by logging into MedBridge. Then, from your dashboard, hover over Patient Engagement and select Home Exercise Program.
- If you’re taken to your patient list, find the patient you need to create a program for, or create a new program. From their profile, select Update Program or Build Program and you’ll be taken to the HEP Builder. (Note: HEP Lite users will skip this step.)
- Use the List filter to find dysphagia exercises. Select Speech-Language Pathology, then select Dysphagia.
- The center of the screen will update to show all content in this category. You can change the sorting to Most Recent to see the newest content, or select options like Most Sent, Most Favorited, and more.
- Add exercises to your program by selecting the Add button or dragging and dropping them into the program builder.
How do I locate dysphagia patient education in the MedBridge HEP Builder?
- To find education make sure you’re logged into the HEP Builder by following the steps above.
- Select Patient Education at the top of the library to view patient education resources.
- In the filters section of the left-hand side of the builder, select Speech-Language Pathology, then select Dysphagia.
- The center of the screen will update to show all content in this category. You can change the sorting to Most Recent to see the newest content, or select options like Most Sent, Most Favorited, and more.
- Add education to your program by selecting the Add button or dragging and dropping them into the program builder.
Once you’ve added exercises and education, you can share it with your patient with an email or text message. Learn more about sharing a home program with your patients.
What kinds of programs can I build with these new resources?
With over 150 new resources, you can create exactly the program your patient needs. Here are a few suggested programs to get you started.
IDDIS Level Education
To help your patient understand IDDSI levels, we’ve created education about each individual level. If you search the patient education library for “IDDSI Level,” you’ll find a dedicated video and handout for each level. You can build a program to help your patients understand the level they’ve been assigned.
Learning to Safely Prepare Food and Liquids
Many of our education resources cover not only how to safely prepare food for patients with dysphagia, but how to make sure what they’re eating and drinking is still tasty. You can create a program that includes videos and handouts about Frazier Free Water Protocol, strategies for meal independence, and more.
Education for NPO Patients
If your patient is NPO, we have created dedicated resources that you can share with the patient and their caregiver. Search the patient education library for “NPO” and you’ll find videos and handouts discussing both short-term and long-term nonoral feeding that can be added to a home program and shared with your patient in an email or text message.
These suggestions should help you start to build a perfect program for your patients with dysphagia, but with MedBridge, you always have the freedom to customize a program to fit your patients needs. Log into the HEP Builder today to explore the new resources available to you.
Not using our HEP Builder? Consider upgrading your subscription or request a demo for your organization to learn more.