Included: all patients who are considered to require speech and language therapy are included in this indicator.
| Excluded: patients who are considered to not require speech and language therapy are excluded from this indicator |
To calculate the length of stay at an inpatient team a patient was considered to require SALT at:
The team centred length of stay at a team, if the patient was considered to require SALT and the team was the first team the patient was seen by:
For newly arrived patients, the difference between the date the patient was considered to no longer require Speech and language therapy (Q 4.4.1b) with a time component of 00:00 and date and time of arrival (Q 1.13).
For patients already in hospital at the time of their stroke (Q 1.10 is ‘Yes’), the difference between the date the patient was considered to no longer require Speech and language therapy (Q 4.4.1b) with a time component of 00:00 and date and the date and time of symptom onset (Q 1.11).
The team centred length of stay at a team, if the patient was considered to require SALT and the team was NOT the first team the patient was seen by:
The difference between the date the patient was considered to no longer require Speech and language therapy (Q 4.4.1b) with a time component of 00:00 and date and time of arrival at this hospital (Q 4.1).
Please note that the date of assessment for therapy is not used when calculating the length of stay.
Question 4.4.1c was added to the data set on the 1st April 2014. A different end date is used for patients with a clock start before this date.
The shortest length of stay in a given team where a patient is deemed to require SALT is set at 24 hours, therefore any shorter lengths of stay are rounded up to reflect this.
Team-centred: The length of stay applicable for SALT at that team (if the patient was considered to require SALT) is the patient’s length of stay applicable for SALT.
Patient-centred: The length of stay applicable for SALT at each team where the patient is considered to require SALT are summed together to give the patient’s total inpatient length of stay which is applicable for SALT.
2) Then, calculate the number of days on which the patient received SALT:
For team-centred: the number of days of SALT the patient received (Q 4.5) at the specific team.
For patient-centred: the number of days of SALT the patient received (Q 4.5) at each inpatient team the patient was deemed to required SALT at are summed together to give the total number of days on which SALT was received.
3) Then, calculate the percentage of a patient’s days in hospital on which speech and language therapy is received:
Divide the total number of days on which SALT was received, by the patient’s length of stay which is applicable for SALT.
Due to the way length of stay is calculated, some patients’ percentages may be over 100%. This is capped then capped at 100%.
Cohort median:
4) Lastly to find the median percentage, all percentages for each patient need to be listed in numerical order. The median is then the number in the middle of this list.
| For team-centred | For patient-centred |
| The patient must be considered to require speech and language therapy by the specific team | The patient must be considered to require speech and language therapy by at least one inpatient team that the patient has been seen by |
Example
Patient W arrived (clock start) at Team A at 12:00 on 2nd January. They required SALT at Team A until the 13th January, but did not receive any SALT. They were transferred to Team B on 13th January at 12:00. They received SALT at Team B on 5 days during their stay, and no longer required SALT on the 19th January.
Patient X arrived (clock start) at Team A at 12:00 on 1st January. They no longer required SALT on 13th January. They received SALT on 5 days during their stay.
Patient Y arrived (clock start) at Team A at 12:00 on 3rd January. They required SALT at Team A until the 5th January and received 2 days of SALT. They were transferred to Team B at 09:00 on 6th January. They no longer required inpatient rehabilitation from Team B on 16th January. They received SALT on 8 days during their stay.
Team-centred (Team A):
Patient W:
1) Length of stay = 12:00 2nd Jan – 00:00 13th Jan = 10.5 days
2) Number of days SALT received = 0 days
3) Percentage of patient’s days at Team A in which SALT is received = 0 days = 0.00 = 0%
10.5 days
Patient X:
1) Length of stay = 12:00 1st Jan – 00:00 13th Jan = 11.5 days
2) Number of days SALT received = 5 days
3) Percentage of patient’s days at Team A in which SALT is received = 5 days = 0.43 = 43%
11.5 days
Patient Y:
1) Length of stay = 12:00 3rd January – 00:00 5th January = 1.5 days
2) Number of days SALT is received = 2 days
3) Percentage of patient’s days at Team A in which SALT is received = 2 days = 1.33 =100%
1.5 days
Note, due to the way this indicator is calculated, Patient Y’s percentage has been capped at 100%
4) Median percentage of all patient’s days in hospital in which SALT is received in numerical order =
0% 
Team A’s team-centred median percentage of all patients’ days in hospital in which SALT is received is 43%
Patient-centred (Team A):
Patient W:
1) Length of stay = 12:00 2nd Jan – 00:00 13th Jan + 12:00 13th Jan – 00:00 19th Jan = 10.5 + 5.5 days = 16 days
2) Number of days SALT received = 5 days
3) Percentage of patient’s days in hospital in which SALT is received = 5 days = 0.31 = 31%
16 days
Patient X:
1) Length of stay = 12:00 1st Jan – 00:00 13th Jan = 11.5 days
2) Number of days SALT received = 5 days
3) Percentage of patient’s days in hospital in which SALT is received = 5 days = 0.43 = 43%
11.5 days
Patient Y:
1) Length of stay = 12:00 3rd Jan – 00:00 5th Jan + 09:00 6th Jan– 00:00 16th Jan = 1.5 days + 9.6 days
= 11.1 days
2) Number of days SALT is received = 2 days + 8 days = 10 days
3) Percentage of patient’s days in hospital in which SALT is received = 10 days = 0.90 = 90%
11.1 days
Cohort median (patient-centred):
4) Median percentage of all patient’s days in hospital in which SALT is received in numerical order =
31%
The patient-centred median percentage of all patients’ days in hospital in which SALT is received is 43%