Obtaining a detailed assessment of a hospitalized patient's nutrient intake is often critically important to ensuring the patient's successful recovery. However, this process is often laborious and prone to error. Inaccurate nutrient intake assessments result in the inability of the healthcare team to recognize patients with developing nutritional deficits that contribute to delayed recovery and prolonged lengths of stay. This paper describes an innovative, easy to use system designed to increase the precision of calorie count reports by using a combination of photography, direct observation, and a specially developed computer program. Although the system was designed specifically for use in a Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital, it has the potential to be adapted for use in other hospital environments.
Keywords: diet; nutrition assessment; nutrition status; nutritional deficiency; undernutrition.