Home Health Care Opportunities Expand for Registered Dietitians, According to Practice Paper from American Dietetic Association
Home Health Care Opportunities Expand for Registered Dietitians, According to Practice Paper from American Dietetic Association
June 01, 2009
The American Dietetic Association has released an updated Practice Paper on opportunities for nutrition professionals to provide home health care. The paper has been published in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. It summarizes the expanding role of registered dietitians in home care, such as counseling patients and families, providing and monitoring nutrition support therapies, educating referral sources on the benefits of home care, lobbying for improved home care coverage and advocating for the home care patient.
Practice Papers are evaluative summaries of scientific information and/or practical application that address topics in dietetics practice of importance to American Dietetic Association members. They are intended to provide opportunities for critical reasoning and quality improvement in dietetics practice and to include peer-reviewed perspectives from experts in the field. Practice Papers generally are written on emerging areas of dietetics and should not be interpreted as official positions of ADA.
“There are unlimited possibilities for professional growth for RDs in the arena of home care not only as providers of nutrition care, but also as administrators, case managers and researchers,” said registered dietitian Mary P. (Trisha) Fuhrman, author of ADA’s home health care Practice Paper. “In particular, home care is an expanding opportunity for pediatric and geriatric nutrition specialists,” she said.
According to ADA’s Practice Paper, home care is a dynamic area of health care. Since its inception in the 1880s, it has grown to provide care to more than 7.6 million people with annual expenditures exceeding $57.6 billion in 2007. Ninety-three percent of home care patients are treated by a Medicare- or Medicaid-certified agency. There were 9,284 Medicare-certified home health agencies in 2007 with a total of 253,162 full-time employees. The total number of home health employees was estimated at 867,100 people in 2006.
“The role of RDs in home care can only expand as RDs are involved in providing safe and effective nutrition services in the home and alternate site settings,” according to the Practice Paper. “RDs must adhere to all laws and regulations while providing nutrition services that meet the unique needs and values of the individual. It is also imperative for RDs to be advocates for inclusion of nutrition in (Medicare and Medicaid) guidelines and accrediting body standards. RDs need to know their state home health agency regulations and work with their state affiliates to lobby their state health departments to insure acceptable language that defines at a minimum a definition of a qualified dietitian and nutrition services in home health.”
The paper concludes: “Home care practice is now established, but the opportunities to demonstrate the benefit of more involvement of RDs in home care and home infusion are abounding. RDs can not only provide the nutrition intervention that augments the medical care provided, but through clinical oversight and emotional support, RDs can enhance clinical outcomes as well as positively impact each patient’s quality of life.”