Background & aims: Screening for malnutrition is not often done in the management of hospitalized
patients. An original computer tool was developed at the Dunkerque hospital to detect readmissions of
patients with malnutrition during a previous stay and generate e-mail alerts to the nutrition department.
The aim of the study was to describe and evaluate this tool and the activity of the nutrition department
in connection with the alerts sent.
Methods: The number of alerts sent, dietary consultations conducted, assessments of the nutritional status
and the number of malnourished patients diagnosed were collected from September 1st to November 30th
2012. The positive predictive value (PPV) of the malnutrition screening toolwas estimated. The evolution of
the nutritional status between the last and the current hospitalization was also evaluated.
Results: A total of 531 e-mail alerts were sent (mean of 8.2 per working day), leading to 205 dietary
consultations but only 144 recorded assessments of the nutritional status (lack of information in medical
records). Of the latter, 128 diagnoses of malnutrition were made, i.e. a PPV of 88.9%, 95% Confidence
Interval ¼ [83.8%, 94%]. Overall, only one quarter of readmitted patients had improved nutritional status.
Conclusions: The automatic e-mail alert system is operational and useful to effectively detect patients at
risk of malnutrition and make follow up possible. In addition, an unfavorable evolution of the nutritional
status of malnourished patients was observed.