Canadian Hospital Food Service Practices to Prevent Malnutrition.

The study aimed to determine current practice, barriers, and enablers of foodservices in Canadian hospitals relative to guiding principles for best practice to prevent malnutrition. Foodservice managers completed a 55-item cross-sectional, online survey (closed- and open-ended questions). Survey responses (n = 286) were from diverse hospitals in all Canadian regions; 56% acute care; 13% had foodservices contracted out; and 60% had a reporting structure combined with clinical nutrition.

A Multi-Center Assessment of Nutrient Levels and Foods Provided by Hospital Patient Menus.

Diets of high nutritional quality can aid in the prevention and management of malnutrition in hospitalized patients. This study evaluated the nutritional quality of hospital patient menus. At three large acute care hospitals in Ontario, Canada, 84 standard menus were evaluated, which included regular and carbohydrate-controlled diets and 3000 mg and 2000 mg sodium diets.

Diet order entry by registered dietitians results in a reduction in error rates and time delays compared with other health professionals.

In January 2009, registered dietitians (RDs) at St Michael's Hospital (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) were granted approval for nonmedication order entry of physician-approved nutrition-related orders for the patients to whom RDs provided care. The aim of this project was to document any changes in the numbers and types of diet order errors and time delays that were associated with this policy change. A retrospective chart audit was conducted to document the error rate in 672 nutrition-related orders placed before, and in 633 orders placed after, implementation of RD diet order entry on high-risk inpatient units.