Practice Consideration
Effective communication among the healthcare team occurs in many different ways, informal and more formal. One of the more formal mechanisms is the care planning meeting where the healthcare team share information and assessments as well as discuss interventions. In this case, the Certified Dietary Manager attends all care planning meetings and the dietitian attends as needed. The decision for the dietitian to attend is based on whether the resident is a new resident, significant changes in status have occurred, and whether there are new nutrition interventions needed. Bertha and her daughter are always invited to attend. The family member may attend in person or by telephone. Usually at least the very first Care Planning Meeting that occurs (between 14-21 days of admission) both Bertha and her daughter would attend in person. The Care Coordinator chairs the meeting. Each member of the healthcare team summarizes their care. The nutrition care input usually includes:
-Residents current diet order and location of eating (common dining area or bedside)
-Characterization of overall eating (e.g. eating well (may include percent of food consumed) description of appetite if appropriate, (for example - good, low, declining, no appetite)
-Resident's current height and weight, any change in weight, and characterization of wt change (small or significant according to CMS Critical Areat Trigger levels)
-Any other resident comments (e.g. food requests)
-Usually, the resident will be asked for their input (and or approval of plan) after each healthcare team member speaks