P199 SCREENING ON MALNUTRITION IS MANDATORY IN DUTCH HOSPITALS

Rationale: In the past years, the Dutch Malnutrition Steering Group (DMG) gained attention for the problem of disease related malnutrition in The Netherlands. In the period of 2006-2009 DMG performed an implementation project on early screening and treatment of malnutrition in hospitals. The implementation objectives of this project were adapted by the Health Care Inspectorate (HCI) as part of the performance indicators for risk steering supervision. Methods: In 2007 Dutch hospitals obligatory reported on the percentage of patients screened on malnutrition. In addition, as of 2008 hospitals had to report annually on malnutrition treatment (expressed as percentage of patients with an adequate protein intake on the fourth day of admission). This abstract reports on the results of 2007 and the results of a quick evaluation (March 2009). The 2008 HCI-results can be presented during the ESPEN congress. Results: In 2007, 98 out of 100 hospitals reported on malnutrition screening to HCI. 81 hospitals had implemented systematic screening before or during 2007. Of these, 45 hospitals used the SNAQ, 13 used the MUST, and 23 used a combination of tools or another screening tool. 34 hospitals (42%) reported a percentage of screened patients of more than 60%. In total, 52% (range: 0.4 100%) of patients were screened at hospital admission. 7.0% (0.5 26%) were moderately malnourished and 18.4% (0.5 65%) were severlye malnourished. Results from the quick evaluation (n = 100) showed that 96 hospitals have implemented systematic malnutrition screening; 76 use the SNAQ, 19 use the MUST, and one uses its own tool. Conclusion: Screening and treatment of malnutrition have become mandatory performance indicators in Dutch hospitals. Hospitals are eager to score well on this indicator and we will examine the results of the coming years whether early recognition and treatment of malnutrition will further improve in Dutch hospitals.