Malnutrition Screening: A Screening Tool For Outpatient Oncology Patients, Leveraging Emr Data.

275Background: The provision of adequate nutritional care in outpatient cancer centers was the focus of a 2016 NAS Workshop, “Assessing Nutrition Care in Outpatient Oncology.” Here we report our internal project evaluating ongoing documentation of a malnutrition screening tool (MST) at 3 national cancer centers (CC). Methods: Screening scores from a validated 2 question MST scale were entered into the EMR. Questions probe for: 1) unintentional weight loss; and 2) eating poorly because of a decreased appetite. A score of ≥ 2 indicated nutrition risk. De-identified oncology clinic visit data were examined monthly to assess MST utilization and scores for radiation and medical oncology patients across the CC’s. Results: Approximately two-thirds (67%) of unique medical oncology patients that visited the CC’s had documented MST data with 9% (n = 144,129) scoring at nutritional risk. MST completion rates were higher in radiation oncology clinics secondary to staff education. Of those that had a valid MST score i...