Nutrition support teams: past, present, and future.

Nutrition support teams have evolved rapidly and grown in numbers since the early 1970s. While not all hospitals have or need nutrition support teams, the team approach has been demonstrated to be an excellent mechanism for identifying patients in need of nutrition support, reducing the complications associated with enteral and parental nutrition, and providing cost-effective nutrition support in a variety of hospital environments. The organization of a nutrition support team is reviewed, and suggestions are outlined for team survival in this uncertain era of health care reform. New JCAHO standards are reported which require performance-based interdisciplinary delivery of nutrition support, and make it more likely that efficiently organized nutrition support teams will thrive and continue to make important contributions to safe and cost-effective health care now and in the immediate future.