ACDIS tips: GLIM resources for glum CDI professionals

The clinical world now has a new set of criteria for malnutrition, thanks to representatives from the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, the Latin American Nutritional Federation, and the Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Society of Asia who published “Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) Criteria for the Diagnosis of Malnutrition: A Consensus Report From the Global Clinical Nutrition Community,” on September 2, in the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

The GLIM criteria offer some advantages over the 2012 ASPEN malnutrition consensus criteria. While the ASPEN criteria are effective for diagnosing malnutrition, they are less effective for defining severe malnutrition. The GLIM criteria are less subjective and more clinically intuitive, and they include weight loss, muscle mass, and BMI parameters that are more consistent with the traditional concepts of non-severe and severe malnutrition.  

In addition, the GLIM etiologic criteria for acute disease/injury include confirmation of severe systemic inflammation (in contrast to ASPEN). This is a much-needed provision that incorporates recent research on systemic inflammation’s central role in the development of malnutrition.

The new criteria has not been fully adopted and embraced for coding and reporting purposes. However, CDI professionals need to be aware of the ins and outs of the new criteria so that they are prepared to encounter it should physicians begin using it in their documentation.

While ACDIS has a couple resources available for you (including an episode of ACDIS Radio and an article in the CDI Journal), the criteria deserves a much deeper dive than those avenues provide.

For an in-depth look at the new criteria, join ACDIS and Richard Pinson, MD, FACP, CCS, principal of Pinson & Tang LLC and acclaimed author of the CDI Pocket Guide, on Thursday, December 13, 1-2:30 p.m. eastern, for an in-depth webinar on the topic. Click here to register.

Editor’s note: Portions of this article were adapted from a column in the November/December edition of the CDI Journal. To learn more about next week’s webinar, click here.