Q: Which dietary-related parts of the new regulations for LTC should providers be most aware of?
A: The fact that they need a registered dietician to be more involved. Before, they just needed one as a contractor. Now you need to have a full-time registered dietician or a highly educated manager.
Q: What should providers’ first steps be to meet these regulations?
A: They should hire at least a part-time dietician to be on site a couple of days a week, and make sure they educate their staff and give them in-services on food service, cleanliness and diets. Training staff should be their number one focus.
Q: What parts of these regulations might providers overlook?
A: They now have to look more at residents’ preferences. They have to be more open to asking residents what they want, and really get the residents involved in menu planning. That’s been overlooked, and more long-term care facilities are just using a standardized menu.
Q: What kind of dietary-related regulations might we see in the future?
A: We’re really going to be going away from strict therapeutic diets to more individualized menus, and looking at the resident as a whole.
From the August 01, 2017 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
