http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/localhospi_5355.mp3
CoxHealth is taking part in an international nutrition survey. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more…
CoxHealth is one of 155 hospitals around the world taking part in a three month survey of nutrition therapy for critically ill patients in the intensive care unit. Karrie Derenski is nutrition support coordinator at Cox…
"So, it's looking at when you come into the ICU, and your care starts, things like how quickly we get to feeding you and how are we feeding you? Are we feeding you with a tube or are we feeding you with an IV? So, it's looking at how we do it, how fast we do it and how long we have to feed you that way before you're able to take food in by mouth."
Derenski says they’ll use the survey results to compare themselves to other hospitals around the world…
"We will be able to see how we do to other sites that are participating in the survey here in the United States as well as European countries, so we'll get to see how we do with our nutrition care compared to other sites."
She says the overall goal of the survey is to improve the practice of nutrition therapies in critical care settings.According to Derenski, the right nutrition is vital in the healing of critically ill patients...
"There are a lot of things you can do in the critically ill patient that can help things like their response to their other illness, so if I can provide a tube feeding to that patient, that helps them with their immune system and boosts their immune system, and they're able to fight their infection off and heal quicker."
20 critically ill patients are enrolled in the survey, which is sponsored by Dr. Daren Heyland from Kingston General Hospital in Ontario, Canada.For more information, go to www.criticalcarenutrition.com.