Training food service supervisors using hand-held computers to conduct nutritional screening of institutionalized...

Six food service supervisors (FSSs) working in skilled nursing facilities were trained to use a hand-held computer, COMPU-CAL/PRO 5.1, to screen institutionalized elderly patients for selected nutritional variables and to record results in the medical record. The study demonstrates that hand-held computer-assisted nutritional screenings: (1) are readily adaptable to on-going efforts, (2) are useful in identifying potential indicators of poor nutritional status in institutionalized elderly patients, (3) can be taught to FSS in a relatively short time, (4) increase nutritionally relevant variables that can be assessed, and (5) improve the quality of documentation in the medical record.