Telephone Triage Guidelines - St. James's Hospital

DiarrhoeaHAEMATOLOGY ONCOLOGY TELEPHONE TRIAGE GUIDELINESInitial Assessment QuestionsDIARRHOEA1.What chemotherapy is the patient on?a. If Irinotecan see page 14 for advice b. If Capecitabine see page 15 for advice2. How many stools a day is patient currently experiencing?3. How long has the patient had diarrhoea?4. When was the patient‟s last proper bowel motion?5. Does the patient have any abdominal pain and for how long?6. When did the patient last receive chemotherapy treatment (when if taken oral)?7. Has the patient recently been prescribed antibiotic therapy?8. Has the patient recently been in hospital? (E.g. Contact with C-Diff?)9. Is the patient post bone marrow transplant? If yes see Figure 2 below.Figure 2. Algorithm for Diarrhoea in post transplant patients only How many episodes in24 hours? Is it diarrhoea? Watery Soft What colour is it? Green Brown Have they been startedon antibiotics? Do they have aToxicity temperature? grading of diarrhoea:Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4Increase of 4-6 stools Increase >7 stools per dayper day over baseline; over baseline;IV fluids indicated incontinence; IV fluids24 hours;increase in ostomy hospitalization; severeoutput compared to increase in ostomy outputbaseline; not compared to baseline;interfering with ADLIncrease of