The Nutrition Support Service (NSS) is a multidisciplinary team comprised of physicians, a pharmacist, a nurse, and dietitians with certification in nutrition support. The NSS provides inpatient consultation for all aspects of nutrition support including: assessing nutritional status, determining appropriate energy and protein needs, prescribing enteral and parenteral nutrition regimens, addressing drug-nutrient interactions, recommending and monitoring parenteral intravenous access sites, reviewing fluid and electrolyte challenges, and placing nasoenteric small bowel feeding tubes. The service manages the nutritional therapy for diverse patient populations, including surgery, trauma, critically-ill, medicine, obstetric, and bone marrow transplantation patients. Quality assurance of nutrition support is provided by monitoring appropriateness, duration, and complications of nutritional therapy.

The NSS also provides a valuable teaching function for attending physicians, fellows, housestaff, medical students and allied health personnel. The NSS service has developed clinical treatment pathways for managing common problems associated with nutritional therapy, such as catheter-related sepsis and hyperglycemia.

In addition, NSS members are involved in clinical research projects aimed toward advancing nutritional therapeutic approaches that improve clinical outcome and decrease hospital costs.