Using the computer as a referral source to find the patient at nutritional risk.

The use of the computer-generated reports helped to identify the patient at nutritional risk on the basis of length of stay and diet order and permitted the dietitian to serve the patient in an appropriate and timely manner. Of 572 patients assessed in one year, 265, or 46%, were identified as needing nutrition assessment by the computer reports. As a result of increased visibility and increased medical record entries, awareness of the dietitian's expertise has increased. Several inservice presentations on tube-feeding products, tube-feeding administration, and TPN have been requested and given to medical, surgical, and intensive care nurses. Although specific data were not collected, a decrease in tube feeding wastage was noted. As a result of increased monitoring of tube feedings, a more efficient system of labeling tube feedings was designed. At Fairview General Hospital, use of the mainframe computer-generated patient lists has not only saved the dietitian valuable time in identifying patients with nutrition needs but also has afforded her the opportunity to practice current nutrition assessment on more patients. Possible future applications include microcomputer hook-up with the mainframe computer's data banks to complete nutrition assessment calculations.