- 58 hospitals have applied for the “Good Clinical Nutrition Practices Hospital” program, and 19 clinics have been awarded certificates
- The program aims to popularize good clinical nutrition practices in hospitals
- Appropriate nutritional therapy eliminates many complications, and greatly shortens the time of the patient’s stay in the hospital
58 hospital units from all over Poland have applied for the programme. 19 clinics have been awarded to provide therapeutic nutrition at the highest level. Testimonials were presented on Friday (11 June) during the Congress of the Polish Society of Injection, Intestinal and Metabolism POLSPEN.
Nutritional therapy as an opportunity to recover faster
Clinical nutrition is the administration of appropriate doses of nutrients (energy, proteins, electrolytes, vitamins, trace elements and water) in the form of liquid meals or artificial feeding (enteral or parenteral nutrition). Proper selection of the diet and the method of its administration allows you to improve or maintain the patient’s nutritional status, and in many cases is a guarantee of a faster recovery.
In practice, often the nutritional status of patients is not paid attention, and nutritional therapy is started or carried out for too short a time or too late. The “Good Clinical Nutrition Practices – Nutrition Therapy” program aims to disseminate good clinical nutrition practices in Polish hospitals.
Hospitals that applied for certification had to submit a declaration, fulfill several requirements and undergo official certification under the supervision of a team of experts.
Causes and challenges of hospitals in the field of therapeutic nutrition
Analysis of the announcements submitted and the course of certification meetings reveal the biggest problems that hospital units currently face when conducting clinical nutrition.
The accreditation program shows that a large number of hospitals are not familiar with many aspects of clinical nutrition. Units declare that they meet certain criteria, when in fact they are not fully implemented. During validation, there was also a relatively large disparity between advertisements and reality. Testimonials show that we still have a lot to do. The better the hospital conducts clinical treatment, the better the result it should get in the accreditation system – the professor emphasizes. Stanisław Kłęk, President of the Polish Society of Injection, Intestinal and Metabolism POLSPEN.
The use of nutritional therapy remains an unregulated and problematic process for many institutions. The initiative “Hospital Good Practice Clinical Nutrition – Nutrition Therapy” launched by the Polish Society of Parenteral Nutrition, Enteral Nutrition and Metabolism aims to improve the condition of patients, improve the quality of nutritional therapy and make it easier for medical staff to use the reimbursed possibilities of nutritional therapy.
The need for regulation – for the benefit of the patient and medical staff
Appropriate nutritional therapy has many benefits for both hospitals and patients. The hospital implements the rights of the patient, thus obtaining a patient-friendly unit image. On the other hand, patients avoid many complications thanks to nutritional therapy, and their hospital stay is significantly shortened. In addition, the increase in the number of accreditation points makes it possible to carry out more specialized procedures and contract with the National Health Fund.
In this version, hospitals faced a difficult task due to the ongoing epidemiological situation. In many facilities, Covid wards have been set up, which have reorganized the unit and required greater involvement of medical teams. Despite the difficulties, hospitals participated in the program in large numbers and many of them met all criteria for good clinical practice.
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