Collaborative Nursing and Nutrition Intervention improves Unintentional Weight Loss at Emory Long Term Skilled Care Facility (Budd Terrace at Wesley Wood Campus)

ABSTRACT

Background: The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in long-term care facilities could be severe for frail and immunocompromised older adults.1 These older adult patients are hypermetabolic due to pressure ulcers, infection, fever, and elevated inflammatory labs such as CRP.1 They experience decreased appetite due to taste and smell changes. The inadequate intake, fat, and muscle loss due to prolonged hospitalization and increased nutrition demands create a negative nutrient balance, leading to unintentional weight loss (UWL).1 According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), UWL is defined as a weight loss of 5% in 30 days, 7.5% in 90 days, and 10% in 180 days.2 In this proposal, our focus was unintentional weight loss (UWL) in long-term skilled care patients and how collaborative nursing and dietitian intervention impacts the UWL in this specific population. Methods: The data were collected retrospectively for all patients admitted between May 2020 to March 2021. The patient's demographic data was collected from the chart review using the point click care program. The top five patient diagnoses were retrieved using MDS coding for the study period. Additionally, the most common chronic disease in the geriatric population was used. The red napkin program was initiated in Oct 2020. The red napkin program was initiated to alert the nursing staff for patients with UWL and who also have pressure ulcers. Results: The results indicated that the average census was 152 patients during the study period. The majority of the patients (84%) were long-term care, with more females than males (59 vs 40%). Most of the patients were African American and Caucasian ethnic group. Nearly 40-45% of patients had diabetes, hypertension;one-fourth of the patients had CHF, dialysis, and dementia. During this period, there was a total of 77 patients who had unintentional weight loss as defined by CMS criteria. There were 60 patients before the intervention, and the numbers declined significantly to 33 patients post-intervention. Out of these 33 post-intervention patients, only 17 patients were new, and 16 were from the previous months of the preintervention period. The number has also declined from 12 to 7 expected weight loss related to hospice and comfort care patients. Most patients received oral nutrition supplements to halt weight loss. Four patients received alternate routes of nutrition support (TPN/EN) in addition to an oral diet. Almost 40% of patients had COVID-19 infection, and 38% of patients had pressure ulcers, which may have affected unintentional weight loss. Conclusion: The results indicated that appropriate and timely collaborative dietitian and nursing efforts improve patient outcomes or quality of care to halt unintentional weight loss in long-term skilled care facilities.