As if being admitted to the hospital isn’t challenging enough, there’s often an additional underlying and undiagnosed condition occurring in one-third of seniors who are admitted: undernourishment.
Statistically, it is estimated that 1 in 3 adult patients age 60 and older are malnourished.
Why is it then that in a study of 6 million adult hospitalizations, only 5 percent of the patients received a medical diagnosis of malnutrition?
Studies over the past three decades have shown that a patient’s nutritional status appears to be overlooked or not considered a medical priority.