A Simple Dietary Questionnaire Correlates With Formal Dietitian Evaluation and Frequently Identifies Specific Clinical Interventions in an Outpatient Gastroenterology Clinic.

BACKGROUND: The spectrum of gastroenterology-related diseases related to obesity is growing. Few clinical tools exist to aid in clinician-guided dietary counseling. GOALS: (1) Develop and validate a 1-page diet history form that would provide information on dietary factors that can contribute to gastrointestinal (GI) illness and to assess adherence to the Mediterranean diet; and (2) evaluate the form in a general GI clinic to determine its potential utility as a clinical tool. STUDY: A 1-page diet history form was developed and underwent qualitative and quantitative validation in comparison to a formal diet evaluation by a registered dietitian. The form was then evaluated in consecutive patients attending a general GI clinic, and analyzed for overall diet content, compliance with a Mediterranean diet, and presence of high-risk (red flag) dietary behaviors. RESULTS: The form was evaluated in 134 patients. In a validation cohort (n=30) the qualitative dietary components measured were highly concordant with a formal dietary interview. Total daily calorie intake correlated with formal dietary review (R=0.61), but tended to underestimate total calories due to less precision in portion size. The prospective cohort (n=104) patients had a mean body mass index of 29.8. Overall, 52.9% were obese, 50% had metabolic syndrome, and 51% had a primary GI illness directly impacted by dietary factors (gastroesophageal reflux, irritable bowel, fatty liver). Overall, 85.6% of patients documented red flag behaviors. Patients with obesity trended for more red flags than overweight or normal body mass index groups. CONCLUSION: A 1-page diet questionnaire correlated well with formal dietary assessment and identified clinically relevant dietary interventions in a high percentage of GI patients.

Harnessing the Benefits of the Nutrition Care Process Quality Evaluation and Standardization Tool: A National Auditing Initiative to Improve Quality of Documentation.

The Nutrition Care Process Quality Standardization and Evaluation Tool (NCP QUEST) is a validated audit instrument assessing the quality of NCP documentation by registered dietitian nutritionists. The present quality improvement project describes change in documentation quality as measured by NCP QUEST and word count of notes after a monthly national digital training provided to Veterans Affairs registered dietitian nutritionists. The training and adoption of NCP QUEST was voluntary. Facilities were recruited among those that had participated during the design and validation study of NCP QUEST. The NCP QUEST score was calculated and the word count was determined for 52 documentation notes (28 from NCP QUEST nonuser facilities and 24 from NCP QUEST user facilities) before and after training. The mean pretraining NCP QUEST score for notes from NCP QUEST nonuser facilities was 13.71 and 13.88 for NCP QUEST user facilities. The mean posttraining total NCP QUEST score for nonuser facilities was 14.00 and 17.65 for user facilities, with no improvement for the nonuser facilities (P = 0.69). A significant improvement was identified for the NCP QUEST user facilities (P ≤ 0.001). All facilities experienced a significant reduction in the word count of assessment notes (P = 0.04). Use of the electronic NCP Terminology website increased 123-fold and was sustained after the training. NCP QUEST users reported that the audit tool is useful. The NCP QUEST should be at the center of registered dietitian nutritionists' training and more strategic effort is needed to engage practitioners in the optimal application of the NCP.

Nutrition Care Process Quality Evaluation and Standardization Tool: The Next Frontier in Quality Evaluation of Documentation.

Documentation is essential for communicating care between credentialed nutrition and dietetics practitioners and other health care providers. A validated tool that can evaluate quality documentation of the Nutrition Care Process (NCP) encounter, including progress on outcomes is lacking. The aim of the NCP Quality Evaluation and Standardization Tool (QUEST) validation study is to revise an existing NCP audit tool and evaluate it when used within US Veterans Affairs in all clinical care settings. Six registered dietitian nutritionists revised an existing NCP audit tool. The revised tool (NCP-QUEST) was analyzed for clarity, relevance, and reliability. Eighty-five documentation notes (44 initial, 41 reassessment) were received from eight volunteer Veterans Affairs sites. Five of six registered dietitian nutritionists participated in the interrater reliability testing blinded to each other's ratings; and two registered dietitian nutritionists participated in intrarater reliability reviewing the same notes 6 weeks later blinded to the original ratings. Results showed moderate levels of agreement in interrater reliability (Krippendorff's α = .62 for all items, .66 for total score, and .52 for quality category rating). Intrarater reliability was excellent for all items (α = .86 to .87 for all items; .91 to .94 for total score and.74 to .89 for quality category rating). The NCP-QUEST has high content validity (Content Validity Index = 0.78 for item level, and 0.9 for scale level) after two cycles of content validity review. The tool can facilitate critical thinking, improved linking of NCP chains, and is a necessary foundation for quality data collection and outcomes management. The NCP-QUEST tool can improve accuracy and confidence in charting.