Hospitalists are key players in improving hospital performance, but they may be overlooking a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, especially among older adults.
Research suggests that at the time of hospital admission, some 20%-50% of all patients are at risk for malnutrition or are malnourished, but only 7% of those patients are diagnosed during their stay, according to research cited in an abstract presented at HM17.1
“Because individuals who are malnourished lack sufficient nutrients to promote healing and rehabilitation, and are at increased risk of medical complications, it can have a serious impact on patient safety indicators, such as rates of pressure ulcers, wound healing, and risk of falls,” said lead author Eleanor Fitall of Avalere Health. “Early identification and subsequent treatment of these patients is the best way to prevent this risk.”
To address the issue, Avalere Health and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics established the Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative (MQii), a multi-stakeholder effort to identify tools to support hospital-based care teams in improving malnutrition care quality. They developed a malnutrition Toolkit, which was piloted in 2016 and was shown to effectively improve malnutrition care.
“Since the poster presentation in May, we have successfully implemented the Toolkit at 50 hospitals via a multi-hospital Learning Collaborative,” Ms. Fitall said. They are now recruiting hospitals and health systems to participate in an expanded Learning Collaborative. Interested sites should contact the MQii team at [email protected].
“By supporting efforts to improve malnutrition care in the inpatient setting, hospitalists can help reduce the incidence of these problems as well as decrease rates of readmissions and reduce patient lengths of stay,” Ms. Fitall said. “Hospitalists are critical to addressing malnutrition care gaps in the hospital. Dietitians that have undertaken malnutrition quality improvement projects using the MQii Toolkit have found that they are most successful when hospitalists are actively engaged in the team, particularly when looking to improve the rate of malnutrition diagnosis. Hospitalists are ideally positioned to champion these efforts.”
Support for MQii was provided by Abbott, she said.
Reference
1. Fitall E, Bruno M, Jones K, Lynch J, Silver H, Godamunne K, Valladares A, Mitchell K. Malnutrition Care: “Low Hanging Fruit” for Hospitalist Clinical Performance Improvement [abstract]. J Hosp Med. 2017;12(suppl 2).