title: The use of an enteral expert system in the prescription of enteral formulas in a university hospital.
abstract: A personal computer-based expert system has been developed for the prescription of enteral formulas based on patient-need characteristics. Two hundred twelve inpatients in a university hospital setting were prospectively evaluated to compare the identity and cost of the enteral formula prescribed by the expert system with the identity and cost of the enteral formula prescribed by the ward team. Two hundred seven patients had complete data to allow analysis. There was a mean cost savings (+/-SD) of $1.18 +/- 7.69/d for each patient using the expert system compared with the MD-prescribed formula (P = 0.023). We project that the use of this program would save $27,564/y in our hospital (an average of 23,360 patient/days of enteral feeding per year). We conclude that the use of an expert system can be cost-effective in the prescription of enteral formulas for hospitalized patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition Sciences, School of Medicine, School of Health-Related Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, USA.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Vaughn
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hardin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000191:economics; D005103:Expert Systems; D005260:Female; D005526:Food, Formulated; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008838:Microcomputers; D008875:Middle Aged; D055656:Prescriptions / Q000191:economics; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012984:Software