[A regional alliance in nutritional management-ten years of collaboration with an nutrition support team network].

Ten years has passed since we began the nutrition support team(NST)to make a regional alliance between local institutions for construction of the NST network. The network was formed with the following aims: 1) regional joint conferences for learning about nutrition with family doctors, facilities, and hospitals; 2) open general meetings for information about nutrition within the suburbs of our city; 3) preparing and sending an NST manual about parenteral nutrition(PN)and enteral nutrition(EN); and 4) preparation of an NST summary of patient malnutrition to foster mutual understanding. We produced a questionnaire summarizing the completion of nutritional management in patients. The following positive benefits were observed: 1) improved nutritional motivation and technique; 2) reduced nutritional confusion after discharge from our hospital; and 3) lower levels of anxiety in the facilities, the patient, and among the patient's family. In addition, follow-upinquiries allowed us to estimate whether our nutritional strategy was adequate. A more widely open regional alliance is needed in the future to strengthen patient nutrition following hospital discharge.