DIETITIAN

Major Responsibilities

• Daily, provide ongoing Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) care for the entire hospital inpatient census through screening, prioritizing, assessing, and recommending interventions. Adapt daily workflow to accommodate fluctuations in patient load due to census variations, consults, acuity, and staffing challenges. Develop and implement a plan of care for patients based on an expert assessment of life‑cycle and diagnosis‑specific nutritional needs. Assessment includes reviews of medical history and laboratory data, patient interviews, and physical examinations to determine current nutritional status of inpatients and/or outpatients.
  
  Document MNT plan of care in the electronic medical record, supporting system clinical documentation and coding standards to maximize reimbursement rates.
• Prescribe enteral and parenteral nutrition support orders by assessing patients and calculating macronutrients, micronutrients, fluid, and electrolytes. Evaluate patient tolerance and effectiveness of formulas, managing initiation or modifications to enteral/parenteral regimen orders. Demonstrate extensive knowledge of specialized nutrition support and triage issues with physicians and pharmacy. Maintain secure communication with the system‑level Pharmacy Integrated Clinical Services (PICS) team to manage and order Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) infusions for critically ill patients.
• Prescribe orders for therapeutic diets, oral nutrition supplements, and nutrition support regimens—including vitamins, minerals, fluid management, and lab work—within the scope of the MNT protocol. Use order‑writing privileges to implement nutrition‑related orders. Collaborate with Food and Nutrition patient services to align patient intake with nutrition prescriptions and interdisciplinary plans of care. Partner with site services to recommend appropriate clinical nutrition formula and supplement substitutions during supply‑chain disruptions.
  
  Ensure diet restrictions, allergy restrictions, supplement preferences, and tube feedings are consistent with patient needs and personal, religious, and cultural preferences. Develop patient‑specific menus for those with complex dietary needs.
• Lead efforts to identify, treat, and prevent malnutrition. Perform Nutrition Focused Physical Examinations of high‑risk patients to evaluate loss of specific muscles and subcutaneous body fat and determine the presence and degree of malnutrition. Communicate findings to the medical team through documentation to ensure maximized reimbursement. Provide MNT education to patients identified with moderate or severe malnutrition to improve outcomes and reduce readmission rates.
• Document elements of the Global Malnutrition Composite Score (GMCS) for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Nutrition Electronic Quality Indicators. Participate in Quality Assessment Performance Improvement (QAPI) efforts to ensure nutrition care is safe and effective for patients. Maintain regulatory readiness. Support department clinical initiatives to ensure compliance with safety initiatives, policies, procedures, DNV regulations, and department standards.
• Identify and document billable nutrition diagnoses with supporting documentation. Provide clinical support to outpatient medical destination programs (e.g., cancer center, transplant clinic, digestive health programs, bariatric, cardiac rehab, heart failure, etc.). Enter charges for outpatient nutrition charge capture in the electronic medical record.
• Support partnerships with local didactic programs by precepting dietetic graduate students in clinical nutrition and/or food‑service management. Direct and monitor interns’ progress daily and at designated touchpoints, providing feedback for growth and development. Communicate regularly with didactic program coordinators. Also precept medical residents and provide nutrition orientation as applicable. Deliver nutrition lectures to residents in internal medicine, trauma, NICU/Peds, and family practice.
• Collaborate routinely with discharge planners, home health, physicians, pharmacy, and other interdisciplinary teams to address the full scope of the system‑established…