Positive patient outcomes in acute care : does obtaining and recording accurate weight make a difference ?

Objective A crucial part of the assessment process is access to an accurate patient weight. To understand how health care practitioners access recorded weight it is necessary to examine the possible barriers to this in everyday practice and the relationship to patient outcomes. This paper will examine how patient weight is integrated in existing health care systems which require accurate weight to ensure positive patient outcomes. Setting Australian hospitals. Primary Argument Health care standards would suggest that accurate weight measurement is used by healthcare providers for a variety of inpatient interventions which include safe prescribing practices, radiation and chemotherapies, manual handling, skin integrity management and identifying nutritional risk. The literature supported the notion that the admission process should include the recording of an accurate weight within the primary assessment during admission. However, it is evident that implementation of evidence based screening tools that require documentation of accurate weight, within patient admission procedures, does not automatically translate into every day clinical care. Conclusions There may be a difference between how weight measurement should be used and how it is used in practice. All healthcare practitioners require timely access to an accurate weight to inform the planning of interventions to ensure provision of appropriate, safe and quality care. Further work is needed to understand the barriers and drivers involved in obtaining and utilising recorded weight within acute care. Future research has the potential to inform healthcare practitioners of the positive impact of an accurate patient weight on patient outcomes and guide developments in clinical practice.