A nutrition screening and assessment system for use with the elderly in extended care

One area of particular interest to health care professionals that is undergoing considerable investigation is the nutritional status of the elderly. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a procedure used to nutritionally screen and assess geriatric patients in extended care at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Houston. As we developed the system, we considered the special needs and characteristics of geriatric individuals and incorporated them into two forms. Designs were selected to make our method comprehensive, concise, and, ideally, time-efficient. The evaluation of the system included a time utilization study. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the new system compared with the efficiency of methods used hospital-wide in the past. Results suggest that the new system for reassessing the patient's nutritional status and reevaluating the nutrition care was three times more efficient.