Dietitians of Canada

nutritionDay in Canada

nutritionDay is a 1-day cross sectional audit designed to collect information that will help hospitals improve how they identify patients that may be at risk of malnutrition and improve the nutritional care of all their patients.

It is well known that undernourished hospital patients take longer to recover, resulting in a longer length-of-stay; more often develop major complications and are more likely to be readmitted for recurring issues. Many studies have found that malnutrition is a variable associated with poor healing, higher complication rates, as well as higher rates of morbidity and mortality and ultimately increased hospital costs. Studies reveal that up to 55%* of hospital patients are undernourished or at risk of being so.

By participating in nutritionDay surveillance activities facilities collect data on specifics such as length-of-stay, hospital acquired infections, complication rates, readmission rates and patient outcomes and their relationship to the nutrition care provided can be benchmarked and measured.  Countries around the world participate in nutritionDay through standardised protocols worldwide. Visit  http://www.nutritionday.org/ for more information and to register as a participating site.

nutritionDay Canada is supported by Dietitians of Canada, the DC Nutrition Support Network, the nutritionDay office in Vienna and the European Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ESPEN). Canada has developed a package of ‘made in Canada’ support materials for anyone to use and adapt for their facilities for the upcoming data collection period.