P973 - TO IDENTIFY THE MAIN NUTRITIONAL ISSUES OF A COHORT OF PATIENTS <75 YEARS OLD ATTENDING AN IRISH EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

P973

TO IDENTIFY THE MAIN NUTRITIONAL ISSUES OF A COHORT OF PATIENTS <75 YEARS OLD ATTENDING AN IRISH EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

 

P. Boyle¹, A. Mc Cabe², S. Feehan^1,*, C. Keane³, C. Thomas³

¹Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics , ²Emergency Department , Tallaght University Hospital , ³Department of Agricultural Science, University College Dublin, Dublin , Ireland

 

Rationale:  In April 2023, a referral pathway for provision of dietetic services was developed. The study aimed to characterise the demographics, medical diagnoses, reasons for dietitian referral and outcomes for patients under 75 years old who presented to the Emergency department (ED).

Methods: This study was conducted in a tertiary ED which has 55,000 annual presentations. Data was collected on all patients referred to the ED dietitian. Excel database was used for data analysis and statistics.

Results: Four hundred and seventy patients presented to the ED who had a medical diagnosis necessitating a referral to the dietitian. The mean age of patients referred was 46 years old and 54% were female.

The main reasons for referral were nutritional issues including weight loss for 99 (21%) patients , gastroenterology medical conditions for 82 (17%) and 73 (16%) patients presented with an eating disorder. (see Fig 1).

Eating disorder diagnosis varied with 32 (62%) patients reported having anorexia nervosa (AN). Thirty-seven percent (n=19) of eating disorder patients were under the age of 18. Within the eating disorder subgroup, 37 (71%) of patients were admitted for refeeding management.

Thirty-six patients presented had their feeding tube replaced, fixed or unblocked and thus, unnecessary admission to hospital was avoided which equates to approximately 140 bed days. 

A further 44 patients had a feeding tube in situ on arrival to ED and required a nutritional assessment and provision of an individualised feeding regime.

The rate of hospital bed admission in the total study population was 66% (310).

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Conclusion: This study provides valuable insights into the wide variety of nutritional issues and diagnosis within this cohort. Having a clinical specialist dietitian in the ED to commence early dietetic assessment and interventions can lead to improved outcomes, shorter stays or admission avoidance.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared