Abstract
Malnutrition is reported to be more prevalent in certain populations of pediatric inpatients, including children under 5 years of age, and children with chronic conditions such as heart failure and congenital heart disease. Malnutrition is largely underrecognized in the US and is assumed to be under diagnosed and under treated. Poor nutrition status has been reported to impact hospital length of stay, rates of infection and complications, quality of life, and cognitive development, which impact both the individual and society at large. Pediatric inpatients at a freestanding Midwestern academic hospital were screened by nursing staff for their nutrition status within 24 hours of admission, according to policy. The currently employed tool was compared to the STRONGkids tool as part of a quality improvement project to determine which tool is more effective in identifying patients with malnutrition risk at the time of admission. Following data analysis, determination was made that a large discrepancy existed between the number of children identified by each tool, as 78% of children who screened as a Moderate risk on the STRONGkids tool were not identified as having nutrition risk with the currently used tool, possible putting them at risk for malnutrition-associated complications.
Keywords: malnutrition risk, STRONGkids, quality improvement