Nutritional follow-up in children after discharge: Organisation in a tertiary care centre

Background Aiming to improve the standard of care for patients with a nutritional intervention, we evaluated how nutritional follow-up (FU) is organised at discharge and after 6 months. Methods From 16 November 2020 until 20 December 2020, we retrospectively included patients admitted for > 1 day to the general ward of a tertiary hospital. Medical charts were reviewed for demographics, anthropometric measurements and nutritional interventions (e.g., tube, parenteral nutrition). Involved healthcare provider (HCP), dietitian and speech and language therapist (SLT) were scored. Nutritional care FU was categorised as in a primary, secondary or tertiary care setting. Results We included 206 (52.4% male) patients, with a median length of stay of 4 (3-8) days. Prehospitalisation 58 (28.2%) patients had a nutritional intervention compared to 74 (35.9%) patients at discharge. In total, 80 (38.8%) patients received nutritional care FU by a total of 114 HCP, and approximately half (53.5%) were dietitians. FU was mostly conducted by a dietitian in the tertiary care (78.7%) and by an SLT in the primary care (54.5%). For 15 (20.3%) patients, the discharge letter included complete reports of nutritional interventions. At 6 months FU, 26.6% of the children still had a nutritional intervention. Mean weight standard deviation score increased significantly between discharge from the hospital and 6 months FU. Conclusions A considerable amount of paediatric patients received a nutritional intervention pre- and post-hospitalisation. Nutritional care is organised around a multitude of different HCP; however, not all cases are multidisciplinary. Nutritional care was scarcely reported correctly in the discharge letter.