Tawam Hospital, in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, also owned and operated by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company PJSC (SEHA),announced today its participation in the Nutrition Day Worldwide project, a global survey or audit of malnutrition amongst hospitalized patients.
"We are considered the first hospital in the GCC and the Arab region to participate in such project", Dr. Taif Al-Sarraj, Head of Clinical Nutrition Department at Tawam Hospital noted.
She explained that the Nutrition Day Worldwide is a non-profit, annual global audit aim to raise awareness of the prevalence of malnutrition among hospitalized patients, and to highlight the major impact of malnutrition on medical costs, hospitalization rates, complication rates, re-admission rates, healing and recovery rates, and most importantly, impact on morbidity and mortality rates.
The day was first launched in Europe in 2006 through the support of the European Society of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN), the Medical University of Vienna and the Austrian Nutrition Society. Throughout the years many countries participated in the survey through the networking of clinical expertise and through the support of many societies and associations such as the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, European Federation of the Association of Dietitians, Dietitian of Canada, the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), and the American Dietetic Association.
Today, hundreds of hospitals, ICU units and nursing homes, in over 30 countries around the world are participating in the Nutrition Day Worldwide. The Nutrition Day Worldwide survey collects data on the unit organization and structures, unit patient caregiver profile, individual patient questionnaire, and individual patient outcome in order to determine the prevalence of malnutrition and associated risk factors influencing patient's nutritional status during hospitalization.
At Tawam Hospital, several units (≥20 beds) are surveyed by Clinical Dietitians in collaboration with other healthcare providers. Coded units are ICU and HDU units, internal medicine units, surgery units, oncology units, and pediatrics unit. A follow-up survey of patient outcomes will be conducted 30 days after the Nutrition Day Worldwide (60 days for the ICU patients) to investigate the relationship between patient medical condition outcomes and nutrition intake.
Dr. Al-Sarraj explained that the data analysis will take place in Vienna. The hospital will receive a comparison of its own results to reference data of all units of the same specialty type. Repeated participation will allow benchmarking. Results will help promote the implementation of proper clinical nutritional care, according to Quality Improvement methodology, to reach the goals specified by the Council of Europe-Committee of Ministers.
Dr. Al-Sarraj is hoping to take the experience and initiative to a higher level at SEHA where all hospitals under SEHA management can be involved in this project next year which will promote better nutritional care among Abu Dhabi hospitals according to international standards and recommendations.
Dr. Al-Sarraj thanked all members of the Clinical Nutrition department, medical and nursing team for their excellent team work. She thanked the Johns Hopkins's management team, Mr. Gregory F. Schaffer (CEO), Dr. Riad Abdelkarim (CMO) and Dr. Steven A. Matarelli (COO), for their great support to successfully participate in the Nutrition Day Worldwide.
Tawam Hospital is part of the SEHA HealthSystem and is owned and operated by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company PJSC (SEHA) which is responsible for the curative activities of all the public hospitals and clinics in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The hospital is managed by Johns Hopkins Medicine International
