Nutrition support therapy is safe and effective. There are well-documented positive nutritional, health, and financial outcomes when providing nutrition support therapy through oral nutritional supplements (ONS), enteral nutrition (EN), and/or parental nutrition (PN) therapies.
The use of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) in the community has led to a 16.5% reduction in hospitalizations.¹ They promote much-needed nutrient intake for weight gain and weight maintenance in hospitalized patients, including older adults who are frequently at risk for malnutrition.²⋅³ Providing ONS to hospitalized patients has been documented to produce an average cost savings of 12.2%. Cost savings typically result from significantly improved outcomes, reduced mortality, reduced complications, and reduced length of hospital stay.⁴ Providing ONS as part of nutrition support therapies has been found to reduce deaths by up to 24% and reduce complication rates.
Providing EN early to critically ill hospitalized patients can significantly improve patient survival and reduce total costs of care by about $14,000 per patient.⁵ EN has been shown to decrease rates of mortality, infectious complications, organ failure, and surgical interventions, and improves clinical outcomes. ⁶⋅⁷⋅⁸⋅⁹⋅¹⁰⋅¹¹⋅¹² Moreover, if critically ill patients are unable to meet their energy requirements through EN alone, supplemental PN has been found to reduce the risk of infections and therefore is a cost-saving strategy.¹³ Home PN plays a key role in reducing hospital stays for those who are ready for discharge but still need PN, which can lead to cost savings.¹⁴