Client success story: Acute care hospital dietitian staffing

Dietitian staffing for a busy census and high standards

By Dietitians On Demand

For more than three years, Clinical Nutrition Manager Davis Mauer, MS, RDN, LND has exclusively used Dietitians On Demand to maintain the high quality clinical nutrition services offered at her community hospital in Maryland. She’s used contract dietitians for weekend coverage, full-time coverage, remote work and starting up a new bariatric program.

She’s loved two of the dietitians so much she converted them to her own employees, and says she will never stop using Dietitians On Demand for her staffing needs.

• 12 dietitian placements in 3 years
• 2 permanent hires
• Zero decrease in service provided to patients

Davis oversees a team of 2.5 FTE dietitians at Doctor’s Community Hospital in Lanham, MD. It’s a 250-bed hospital with a busy census. Her vision for the nutrition department is to have the very BEST nutrition service and best nutrition interventions possible, which she’s succeed at doing so far. Her team is bright, intuitive, and works well with the resources available to them.

The challenges

Over her more than three-year relationship with Dietitians On Demand, Davis has encountered several different dietitian staffing challenges. Initially, she contacted Dietitians On Demand for weekend coverage because it wasn’t within the job description of her FTEs to work weekends.

Davis needed consultant dietitians who could keep up with her busy census and high standards.

She was very pleased with the initial services from Dietitians On Demand, including the customer service and high caliber consultant sent to her site. So when a colleague from the bariatric department reached out to Davis to start up a new program, Davis again reached out to Dietitians On Demand to staff this extra dietitian position. Doctor’s Community Hospital ended up permanently hiring the contract dietitian sent for this assignment because she was such a great fit!

A few months down the line, two of Davis’ 2.5 FTEs left at the same time to pursue new opportunities, so she again reached out to Dietitians On Demand and “tapped into the consultant bank.” Again, the dietitian sent was such a perfect fit that Davis hired her on permanently, too!

How we helped

Throughout different situations, consultant dietitians from Dietitians On Demand were able to jump in and pick up where Davis’ dietitian’s left off. These consultant dietitians needed minimal training and often arrived within a few days, meaning there was limited interruption to patient services.

The results

Since having a “dietitian on demand,” Davis said that in addition to helping her maintain the high standards she sets for her nutrition department, Dietitians On Demand consultants contributed to:

• Consults are being completed within our policy time frame at 100 percent, up from an average of 92 percent.
• Average number of patients being seen (for consults, education, follow-ups) every day has increased from 23.2 patients per day to 28.7.

Says Davis: “Dietitians On Demand is the only agency I will even consider using for my temporary dietitian staffing. The dietitians assigned to our hospital fit in as well as if I handpicked them myself.”

Have a dietitian staffing need at your hospital or long term care site? Let us solve it! Dietitians On Demand is the nationwide leader in staffing registered dietitians, specializing in short-term, temporary and permanent-hire positions in acute care, long term care and food service positions. Our dietitians cover a vacancy, maternity leave, vacations, FMLA or increases in census. Check out our job openings, or request your coverage today!