Standards, options and recommendations: Good clinical practice in the dietetic management of cancer patients: hospital catering

Context. The "Standards, Options and Recommendations" (SOR) project, starte d in 1993, involves a collaboration between the Federation of the French Ca ncer Centres (FNCLCC), the 20 French Regional Cancer Centres, some French p ublic university and general hospitals and private Clinics and medical scie ntific societies. Its main objective is the development of clinical practic e guidelines to improve the quality of health care and outcome for cancer p atients. The methodology is based on a literature review followed by a crit ical appraisal by a multidisciplinary group of experts to produce the draft guidelines which are then validated by specialists in cancer care delivery . Objectives. To develop clinical practice guidelines for hospital catering for cancer patient using the methodology developed by the Standards, Optio ns and Recommendations project. Methods. Data were identified by a literatu re search of Medline (R) and the reference lists of experts in the groups. After the guidelines were drafted, they were validated by independent revie wers. Results. The main recommendations are: 1) While taking into considera tion the specific needs of cancer patients, the dietician is responsible fo r the hygiene, the sanitary quality of alimentation, the equilibrium and nu tritional quality of the hospital catering. 2) Ordering and distribution of meals, and clearing up afterwards contribute to the quality of hospital ca tering and the personnel who do this should have tune and be willing to lis ten to the patients. 3) The ordering of meals should be adapted to individu al patient's requirements and must take into account the patient's medicati on. 4) The method of transporting the food chosen by the institution (cold or warm method) should be respected. The personnel responsible should recei ve regular and specific training to use the method correctly. 5) The intake of patients with nutritional followup should be reliably and reproducibly evaluated by the personnel after every meal. 6) Patient satisfaction should be assessed once a year and the results of this assessment used to improve the quality of hospital catering. 7) The dietician is the interface betwee n the accounts department, the medical wards, the hospital catering departm ent and the patients.