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. 2016 Jul 4;8(7):412.
doi: 10.3390/nu8070412.

Innovations in Calculating Precise Nutrient Intake of Hospitalized Patients

Sheila Cox Sullivan  1 , Melinda M Bopp  2 , Dennis L Weaver  3 , Dennis H Sullivan  4   5
Affiliations

Innovations in Calculating Precise Nutrient Intake of Hospitalized Patients

Sheila Cox Sullivan et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Obtaining a detailed assessment of a hospitalized patient's nutrient intake is often critically important to ensuring the patient's successful recovery. However, this process is often laborious and prone to error. Inaccurate nutrient intake assessments result in the inability of the healthcare team to recognize patients with developing nutritional deficits that contribute to delayed recovery and prolonged lengths of stay. This paper describes an innovative, easy to use system designed to increase the precision of calorie count reports by using a combination of photography, direct observation, and a specially developed computer program. Although the system was designed specifically for use in a Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital, it has the potential to be adapted for use in other hospital environments.

Keywords: diet; nutrition assessment; nutrition status; nutritional deficiency; undernutrition.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A picture of a Nutrition Intake Assessment Form (NIAF), which lists the foods scheduled to be served for a given meal based on the published hospital menu plan, showing the end-user handwritten modifications indicating what foods were actually served.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A patient’s tray after eating. Note the overturned container to communicate it is empty and the flags on the milk carton and coffee cup to show the level of the remaining fluid in the container.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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