September 10, 2025This week marks Malnutrition Week ANZ, a campaign dedicated to raising awareness of malnutrition and encouraging action across healthcare settings in Australia and New Zealand.
Malnutrition occurs when a person’s dietary intake does not meet their body’s needs, leading to loss of muscle and strength, impaired wound healing, reduced immunity, and poorer recovery from illness. It can present from undernutrition which remains a significant concern for hospitalised patients.
Nadia Obeid, Dietitian, said Northern Health staff are committed to reducing the impact of malnutrition through early screening, timely referral and multidisciplinary care.
“Northern Health inpatients are screened for malnutrition risk within four hours of admission to hospital, and re-screened weekly,” she said.
“When a risk is identified, patients are referred to a dietitian for assessment and management. The referral is autogenerated in areas using the EMR.”
Northern Health undertakes an annual Malnutrition Point Prevalence Study to monitor malnutrition rates. This year, one in five Northern Health inpatients were found to be malnourished, with the rate higher in subacute settings, where one in four patients were affected.
“We were pleased to find nurses have been doing an amazing job meeting KPI targets with 94 per cent of patients screened for malnutrition risk on admission. It was also very reassuring that all malnourished patients were receiving nutrition care from a dietitian,” Nadia said.
At Kilmore District Hospital, the Dietetics team is leading a new quality improvement project to strengthen malnutrition management.
“In addition to individualised strategies to modify food intake, oral nutritional supplements play a key role in supporting patients who are malnourished to meet their energy and protein requirements, aiding recovery and reducing length of hospital stay,” said Cat Li, Dietitian at Kilmore District Hospital.
“On the GEM Ward, older adults are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition due to factors such as reduced appetite, multiple health conditions, swallowing difficulties and reduced independence.”
Cat’s project focuses on aligning oral nutrition supplement management at Kilmore District Hospital with other Northern Health sites. The initiative aims to ensure patients at Kilmore District Hospital have timely access to nutrition supplement drinks to support patients with malnutrition and those at risk.
Northern Health’s Dietetics Department continues to monitor malnutrition prevalence, support education across teams, and lead initiatives to ensure best-practice nutrition care for patients.
“For Malnutrition Week, we thank our nursing, medical and allied health colleagues for their ongoing collaboration,” said Cat.
“Recognising malnutrition risk and supporting nutrition care is truly a team effort.”
Featured image: Aaron Henderson, Allied Health Assistant, and Cat Li, Dietitian at Kilmore District Hospital.
