Table 1.

Mealtime feeding assistance care process measures and scoring rules

Feeding assistance care process measures	Scoring rule for a “pass” (scored per person per meal)
1. Staff ability to accurately identify residents with clinically significant low intake of meals	If resident consumes <50 % of meal based on observation, staff documentation in resident’s chart also shows a value ≤60 % for the same meal. Only meals with intake <50 % are scored.
2. Staff ability to offer an alternative to the served meal when a resident’s intake is low	If resident consumes <50 % of served meal, staff offer an alternative to encourage intake. Only meals with intake <50 % are scored.
3. Staff ability to provide assistance to residents requiring assistance to eat	If resident is rated on their most recent MDS as requiring feeding assistance (section G, item 1h rated 2–4), staff provides more than 5 min of assistance during each meal.
4. Staff ability to provide a verbal prompt to residents who receive physical help to eat	If staff provides physical assistance to eat, staff also provides at least one episode of verbal prompting to enhance independence. Only meals during which staff provides physical assistance are scored.
5. Staff ability to provide social interaction to all residents during meals	All residents should receive at least one episode of social interaction during every meal. The duration of the interaction is not considered. All meals are scored.