Standards Development

Scope

This document provides hospitals with best practices to prevent, detect, and treat malnutrition in adult and pediatric inpatients.

This standard addresses processes and protocols to:

— Identify patients at risk of malnutrition at admission

— Diagnose malnutrition

— Implement an integrated nutrition care plan to prevent and treat malnutrition

— Provide nutritious and culturally acceptable food and reduce barriers to food intake for patients

— Monitor nutrition intake and nutrition status changes for patients

— Provide treatment for patients with malnutrition throughout their hospital stay

— Facilitate organizational changes to implement and sustain improved nutrition care

— Focus on nutrition care in the discharge plan when patients are transferred to other care and community settings In this standard hospitals are referred to as “the organization”.

Purpose

In collaboration with CMTF (Canadian Malnutrition Task Force), SCC (Standards Council of Canada) and ISO, ISDI (International Special Dietary Foods Industries) is supporting a project for the development of an ISO Standard on Malnutrition Prevention, Detection, and Treatment.

Malnutrition in hospitals is a serious and widespread clinical issue. Malnutrition can be improved with appropriate nutrition intervention; however, to receive such interventions in the hospital, patients must first be identified as malnourished and properly cared for - all along the nutrition care pathways and after discharge.

Several countries have adopted nutrition care pathways; some have been incorporated in hospital quality indicators, but there would be merit in establishing an international standard for reference. Please refer to the annex "PROJECT BACKGROUND DOCUMENT"