Systemic support for patients on enteral nutrition (EN) – a growing population – is often lacking after hospital discharge. Readmission among these patients is unusually high and commonly related to EN. In a new report, authors from five health systems explain some of the barriers to providing EN outpatient follow-up care, including financial barriers stemming from insurance coverage, medication complexity, and lack of standard processes due to the array of diseases necessitating EN and specialties involved.

The authors provide some available tools for navigating care and share solutions from two hospitals: a dedicated outpatient team at the Mayo Clinic and the Check-EN pilot program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, on which CHCI is collaborating.