Inpatient Services
The Division of Nutrition Therapy at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center provides several services for children admitted into the hospital.
Nutrition Screening and Evaluation | Room Service l Formula Room
Nutrition Screening and Evaluation
Every JCAHO-accredited hospital is required to complete a nutrition screen within 24 hours of admission for all admitted patients. All patients are asked questions by the admitting nurse to identify potential nutritional problems.
Patients identified at nutrition risk receive a nutrition evaluation and a level of nutrition risk is determined. Forty percent of patients who are admitted to Cincinnati Children's are identified as being at nutrition risk. Patients who are identified as high nutrition risk are seen by a Registered Dietitian within four days of admission and receive a complete nutritional assessment.
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Room Service
The food delivery program at Cincinnati Children's, appropriately named "Room Service," is designed to improve patient satisfaction and oral intake by providing desired food selections any time between 6:30 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. The menu was carefully designed and consists of healthy food choices and "kid-friendly" food items. Patients receiving specialized diets receive assistance from the clinical staff in the Division of Nutrition Therapy.
Because of the multiple stresses and anxiety often associated with hospitalization, little impact on diet and lifestyle change takes place when hospitalized. The Room Service menu each patient receives when admitted has the Food Guide Pyramid on the back and the web address for MyPyramid as an educational tool for appropriate nutritional guidelines. In addition, when a food request is received, Room Service Nutrition Care Assistants are trained to encourage balanced meal selections.
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Formula Room
To maintain safety and security, specialized formulas for infants and children are prepared in the Formula Room from recipes provided by the Dietitians or Diet Technicians. Formulas are prepared and distributed daily to the patient care units by Formula Room Technicians.
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