Dietitian-supported Meal-ordering and Systematic Nutritional Care

Clinical dietitians have been an integrated part of the medical pulmonary ward at Gødstrup Hospital since early 2022. They carry out nutritional screening, nutritional treatment and assisst and guide patients in ordering of meals from the hospital's flexible á la carte food service concept.

The study aims to evaluate the effect of the clinical dietitians' effort on patients nutritional intake, risk of readmittance after discharge and 30-days mortality.

The study is observational, and no changes to the current standard of nutritional care will be implemented throughout the study period. Nutritional intake will be measured daily throughout hospitalisation. Readmittances and vital status will be measured at day 30.

To evaluate the effect of the dietitians' effort, data will be compared to historical data from a previous completed study at the same ward.

Patient satisfaction with nutrional care during hospitalisation will be measured with a purpose-designed questionnaire.

Informed written consent will be obtained from all patients before inclusion, and they will be informed that their partitipation is voluntary and that they can withdraw their consent at anytime.

Inclusion criteria

• Newly admitted at the medical pulmonary ward
• Expected admittance of minimum 48 hours
• At nutritional risk defined as a Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 Score of >=3
• Able to understand and speak Danish

Exclusion criteria

• Terminal illness
• Dementia
• Enteral or parenteral nutrition
• Need of texture-modified diet or other special diets