By Jonelle Agurs, ASN Intern
No one wants to get half a diagnosis from their doctor.
Unfortunately, that’s what tends to happen when diagnosing malnutrition in hospitalized adult patients in the United States. The present criteria for some malnutrition assessments, like the Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST), are under scrutiny because they only evaluate patients on symptoms of starvation, such as unintentional weight loss or poor appetite. However, new studies postulate that malnutrition should not be limited to food behaviors, but should be expanded to include inflammation resulting from chronic disease. The body’s inflammatory response can intensify the symptoms of starvation, and vice versa; poor eating habits may induce inflammation as well. The human body does an impeccable job of patching itself up using the inflammatory response, but this process often triggers symptoms strongly associated with malnutrition, such as weight loss. With approximately half of the U.S. adult population (117 million) suffering from at least one chronic condition, such as coronary heart disease and diabetes, it is no surprise that there is an increasing prevalence of malnutrition cases among hospitalized adult patients.
ASN supports the efforts of many of its partner organizations, such as the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which want to recognize the role of the inflammatory response when diagnosing malnutrition. They have proposed four standard criteria: insufficient energy intake, unintended weight loss, muscle mass and fat loss, and diminished physical function. These criteria will support a more etiological-based diagnosis of malnutrition; a diagnosis more closely linked to the chronic diseases that cause it. Misdiagnoses often result in patients being discharged early from hospital care, causing inpatients to return later for health issues made worse by the symptoms of poor nutrition.
The International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, or ICD-10, is a coding system under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, scheduled to be implemented after October 1, 2015. Designed to improve disease management, this revision will include coding using an updated definition of malnutrition. Absence of a standard screening system for this condition is like installing the proverbial cork in the leaky faucet; diagnoses without a simple malnutrition assessment may “plug” up the issue, but the pressure continues to build, waiting for a more thorough solution. The expansion of the ICD-10 coding system will provide a part of that solution by enhancing screening accuracy. With five times more descriptors than its ICD-9 predecessor, ICD-10 coding will include more conditions that could be linked to a range of malnutrition-related issues.
Hospitals across the nation are preparing for the ICD-10 updates, but it is imperative that hospital personnel fully understand how to recognize and diagnose malnutrition to code it properly. Despite shortages of nursing staff and other trained individuals, quality of patient care must be maintained in order to indicate their risk of malnutrition. Clinicians must be able to perform comprehensive assessments of the patient’s complete medical background, so that, along with the newly-proposed diagnostic construct, every patient will receive comprehensive care that will, ideally, lower the cost of their medical care expenses in the future.
Malnutrition, among other hospital-based nutrition topics will be discussed on Saturday, December 6 during the fourth annual Advances and Controversies in Clinical Nutrition conference. Dr. Gordon Jensen, ASN’s immediate past president, will give an address titled “Malnutrition and the Affordable Care Act.” The conference runs December 4-6 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD, and features a dynamic program with topics ranging from dietary supplements to nutrition and cancer. To learn more about this year’s conference, please visit the website.
Reference
Jensen, G, Compher, C, Sullivan, D, Mullin, G. (2013). Recognizing Malnutrition in Adults: Definitions and Characteristics, Screening, Assessment, and Team Approach. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, 802-807.
