Download Dietary Standards of Practice

New Dining Standards of Practice for Nursing Home Residents
Karen Gray, MS, RD/LD, Administrative Program Manager, OSDH
On March 1, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Survey and
Certification Letter (S&C: 13-13-NH) announcing the availability of New Dining Standards of Practice
Resources sponsored by the Pioneer Network and the Rothschild Foundations.
An interdisciplinary task force was formed in 2011 as a recommendation from the 2010 CMS/Pioneer
Network symposium on food and dining. The task force included 12 organizations, representing clinical
professions involved in developing diet orders and providing food service (including physicians, nurses,
occupational and physical therapists, pharmacists and dietitians, among others). Also participating were
CMS, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control.
The “New Dining Practice Standards” represent evidence-based research which revealed little benefit to
many older individuals with chronic conditions from restrictions in dietary sugar and sodium, as well as
little benefit from tube feedings, pureed diets, and thickened liquids. The new standards recommend to
clinicians and prescribers that a regular diet become the default with only a small number of
individuals needing dietary restrictions.
Relevant research trends for the new dining standards demonstrate therapeutic/restricted diets should
be the exception and liberalized diets should be the norm to improve the quality of life and the
nutritional status of older adults.
Each of the ten new standards of practice represented in the document reference a basis in current
thinking and research as well as the recommended course of practice as identified by the American
Medical Directors Association (AMDA), the American Dietetic Association (ADA) now named the
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), and CMS. The ten new standards include:
 Standard of Practice regarding Individualized Nutrition Approaches/Diet Liberalization
 Standard of Practice for Individualized Diabetic/Calorie Controlled Diet
 Standard of Practice for Individualized Low Sodium Diet
 Standard of Practice for Individualized Cardiac Diet
 Standard of Practice for Individualized Altered Consistency Diet
 Standard of Practice for Individualized Tube Feeding
 Standard of Practice for Individualized Real Food First
 Standard of Practice for Individualized Honoring Choices
 Standard of Practice for Shifting Traditional Professional Control to Individualized Support of Self
Directed Living
 New Negative Outcome
A final copy of the New Dining Practice Standards is available at:
http://www.pioneernetwork.net/Data/Documents/NewDiningPracticeStandards.pdf
CMS and several national professional organizations developed a 24-minute video to introduce the new
standards. The video is available at:
http://surveyortraining.cms.hhs.gov/pubs/VideoInformation.aspx?cid=1101
The standards are not regulatory and you will not be cited for not implementing them, but we hope you
will consider adopting the standards and share the information with the physicians and medical director
of your facility.