Useful Information

Communication access plays a vital role in supporting safe, equitable, and high-quality care for patients with communication vulnerabilities in acute care hospitals. Yet, despite strong evidence and growing awareness, SLPs often encounter significant challenges when initiating or expanding hospital-based AAC services.

This guide was created by speech-language pathologists who routinely provide bedside AAC care in inpatient hospital settings, lead department and hospital-wide efforts to integrate communication access and patient-provider communication into hospital care, and mentor acute care SLPs across the United States. The Inpatient AACcelerator is designed to help clinicians examine current barriers, needs, and solutions to enhance bedside AAC services across operational, clinical, and system considerations.

Throughout the guide, you will find posed questions to consider individually or with colleagues, along with example solutions that can support planning and next steps.  When using this guide, we encourage you to think about your priorities, needs, long-term goals, and short-term goals to guide your bedside AAC service delivery. While the guide does not expand upon bedside AAC clinical assessments and intervention practices, we encourage you to get started whenever and however you can.