The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether a new way of organising hospital nutrition care can improve outcomes for adults who are admitted to medical wards and are at risk of malnutrition.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
* Does having clinical dietitians take primary responsibility for nutrition care shorten hospital stay?
* Does this approach improve nutritional intake, nutritional status, quality of life, and patient satisfaction?
* Does this approach lower healthcare costs compared with current practice?
Researchers will compare the new nutrition care model with current practice. In current practice, nursing staff are mainly responsible for nutrition screening and nutrition care planning, while clinical dietitians are involved only when requested. In the new model, clinical dietitians are part of the ward team and take primary responsibility for identifying patients at nutritional risk, planning nutritional care, and providing nutritional treatment.
Participants will:
* Receive either the current nutrition care approach or the new dietitian-led nutrition care approach, depending on when they are admitted to the ward
* Complete questionnaires about their nutritional status, quality of life, and daily activities during their hospital stay and about 30 days later
* Have information collected during their hospital stay and from their medical records, including nutritional intake, body weight, length of hospital stay, hospital readmissions, and other health outcomes
The study will be conducted on three medical wards at Gødstrup Hospital. All wards will start with current practice and will gradually change to the new nutrition care model during the study period. Researchers will compare outcomes before and after the new model is introduced.