7 OASIS Questions Shed Light On Nutrition Status
Hint: They don't all involve food. To improve patient outcomes, use OASIS to uncover nutrition problems. Where to begin: To use OASIS to become more aware of nutritional issues, look at these M0 items that assess abilities that directly affect a patient's nutritional status:
Eighty-five percent of the elderly can benefit from nutritional intervention, Dr. Jody Vogelzang told listeners at a June 9 teleconference sponsored by the QIO Texas Medical Foundation.
Improved nutrition can enhance the patient's quality of life, prevent adverse events and add to your agency's outcome success, experts say. And you can use the OASIS tool indirectly to trigger further assessment.
Caregivers often are unaware that a patient is having difficulty swallowing certain foods, says registered dietician Kara Mitchell with the Duke Center for Living in Durham, NC.
For example, they may believe the patient just doesn't like meat anymore, when the real problem is they can only swallow ground or pureed meat, she explains. A dietician would know the right questions to ask to determine the specific problem and can then suggest alternate sources of protein the patient can tolerate, she tells Eli.
Encouraging something like scrambled eggs can increase protein without involving complex cooking, Mitchell suggests. Adding nutrition-packed commercial beverages can also turn a simple meal into a more nutritious one, she adds.
