Every Dietitian needs a way to track their patients, nutrition interventions they’ve implemented, follow up plan, and whether they’re done with the patient or not. And what Dietitian doesn’t love free long term care Dietitian resource? Here you can find exactly why a Dietitian needs to be using this tracking sheet and a link for free access! Whether you’re in long term care or not, you can use this form!

Dietitian Patient Tracking Made Easy

I have heard from countless long term care Dietitains that their jobs are incredibly stressful and overwhelming. I know the job can be a lot, but if you organize your days well, it doesn’t have to be that way! If you want a free long term care Dietitian resource, you have come to the right place!

I have made every tracking sheet and planner known to man in order to keep myself ahead of my workload. Now I’d like to share them with other Dietitians in order to make their jobs easier too.

Having a system for keeping track of patient’s that a Dietitian visits is of the utmost importance. My tracking sheets can be a life saver in your jobs.

Below are the steps a Dietitian can take to implement the patient tracking sheet into their practice. I will walk you step-by-step through the process on how to use this form.

Why Use The Resident Nutrition Tracker Form For?

This Resident Nutrition Tracker Form will help you:
1. Keep track of exactly what patients you are following
2. Write in a brief explanation for why you saw them
3. When you need to follow up on them

It’s also important that you get yourself a good calendar or date book. In the date book, write down all of your follow ups with simply putting the residents name and floor they’re on.

I am currently obsessed with this 2022-2023 day planner off of amazon. I print off my spreadsheet tracker weekly and put it in my day planner and carry both with to my units. Obsessed. You can find it on Amazon here for only $15.99.

How to Use the Resident Tracker Form

Step 1 – Filling Out The Form:

You will use this form everyday at the start of your shift. When you get your daily list of consults, you will add in all the patient names and what the reason for consult is.

I recommend filling in the room number because in some facilities residents change rooms frequently. You want to know exactly where they are at all times, so you will be updating records on an ongoing basis.
It may seem counter intuitive to put a number in that changes, but when a Surveyor comes in you will need to know where to check charts!

Next you just fill in the information listed. Fill in the following:

The Date that you visited the resident, a brief reason of your visit, check the box if you completed a chart note or not (important for Audits! If you didn’t chart on it, you never saw the patient), and lastly input when you charted that you were going to follow up.

This form helps to track New Admissions as well, in most jurisdictions you have 14 days after a resident is admitted to complete your full nutrition assessment. I like to let residents settle in, so I don’t complete the assessment day 1 even if I have the time. By putting their name in my nutrition tracker form, I am absolutely sure to remember.

If you have completed everything with a patient – check off the boxes that the patient assessment is complete. For those patients that you need to follow up on – put a date that you need to follow up, and put the patients name in your day planner on that date!

Step 2 – Following Up on Patients

If you have a list of patients that you need to follow up on, these all should be scheduled in your day planner. This will make it easier to plan your week. Your patient tracker will help you know the exact reason that you need to follow up on.

If a patient needs continual monitoring, continue to keep them in your patient tracker! You will keep their line highlighted yellow so it catches your eye continually when you open it.

You should be opening this tracker on a daily basis. When you get into work, enter in all your consults and look at your list of consults. This will help you plan your day as to what is most important, your high risk patients, sorting non urgent consults, and any other patient issues to follow up on.

Example of Using the Patient Tracker Form: A Long Term Care Dietitian Resource

Mr Gary in room U-394 has a supportive wife who comes in to help with lunch on a daily basis. Recently a nurse told you that she wanted to discuss his diet with you. The nurse filled in a consult form on November 15, 2021 and requested that you call his wife to discuss.

As this was a non urgent consult, you put speaking with Mr Gary’s wife about his diet in your spreadsheet, and dealt with your urgent consults and follow ups first. The wait time on a non urgent consult is approximately 2-5 days at this time.

On November 19, 2021 you were on Mr Gary’s unit and knew that his wife would be in at lunch. You decided to wait until she arrived to speak with her. At noon, Mr Gary’s wife arrives and you ask if now is a good time to speak with her, she is agreeable.

Mrs Gary’s wife would like to update his preferences as she feels his likes/dislikes have changed. You take note of all new changes and pass the new preferences onto Nutrition and Food Services Department. You have completed the consult and no further follow up is needed.

At the end of your shift you click off that you charted on the discussion, and no follow up is needed, you also check off that the consult is completed.

Now you can click the links to get the free spreadsheet! Click the Resource section to find the Resident Nutrition Tracker Form! You can copy and paste the spreadsheet to a new one for free!