Here's the thing:
You're perfectly posi-
tioned to help.
Because outpatient
facilities have the lux-
ury of time, you can
use the checklist to
screen patients from
the time they schedule surgery to the day they show up for their pro-
cedure. Yes, it requires coordination among your facility, your sur-
geons, and local dietitians or nutrition experts, but pre-op nutrition
screening can lead to happier, healthier patients.
A bit of background: A few years ago, a few physicians and I devel-
oped Strong for Surgery (S4S), a public health campaign that
engages patients and their surgeons to improve overall health and
increase the likelihood of a positive surgical outcome
(osmag.net/t8mFKX). The free program targets 4 areas that are
known to be highly influential determinants of surgical outcomes:
nutrition, glycemic control, medication management and smoking
cessation. Today we'll focus on surgical nutrition.
Nutrition screening checklist
You can screen for malnutrition in 60 seconds. The Strong for Surgery
nutrition screening checklist asks patients 4 questions to determine if
the patient is malnourished. If the patient answers "YES" to any of
them, you should refer her to a registered dietitian for nutritional
assessment and intervention to improve the patient's condition before
surgery.
• Is BMI less than 19?
• Has the patient had unintentional weight loss of over 8 pounds in
5 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 8
• SCREENING FOR MALNUTRITION The Strong for Surgery (osmag.net/t8mFKX)
nutrition initiative, administered by the American College of Surgeons, focuses on nutrition
screening of patients before surgery to determine those at greatest risk for malnutrition.
