The BDA is pleased to announce endorsement of the Universal Dietetic Patient Complexity Tool (UDPCT), developed by BDA member Gemma Stott with colleagues at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This essential tool is a great support for dietitians, determining patient complexity and helping with caseload management.
The tool was piloted within 11 dietetic departments between 2017-2022 and validated with dietitians in 12 dietetic departments (204 dietitians and dietetic assistants in pay bands 4-8 with 417 patients) across all four nations in 2023.
The UDPCT V11 is the only validated version of this tool for use within all dietetic specialties and locations including adults, paediatrics, inpatients, outpatients and mental health. The tool determines patient complexity and it can be used for job planning and safe staffing in particular relating to the caseload management with appropriate dietetic banding.
Sian Cunningham, Professional Practice Manager at the BDA said, “We are delighted to be endorsing the UDPCT. This will be a useful resource for our members, and beneficial to ensuring safe and effective practice. We are grateful to Gemma Stott for her continued efforts in developing this tool and to all other BDA members who have supported or contributed to piloting the tool and its development.”
UDPCT determines the complexity of a patient in present time (at the time of the assessment). Complexity can change over time and so some assessments/interventions can be more complex at different times of a patient’s journey. Therefore, every time a dietitian assesses a patient, they must re-score their complexity.
Information at the point of referral for triage or prioritisation is also unlikely to be enough to score complexity so dietitians must assess the patient first and score complexity after assessment each time.
The tool doesn’t have an exhaustive list of all situations and conditions, so judgement should be used, based on similar examples within the tool, to determine complexity.
The tool has copyright protection and is owned by the author and no amendments can be made. For information or feedback please contact the author by email [email protected] or via X @Stottg.
Special acknowledgment goes to Specialist Dietitians Rebecca Sheridan and Claire Ferneyhough, for supporting the development of the tool, as well as job planning caseload management resources. Also, to Specialist ICU Dietitian Rhiannon Bullen, for statistical analysis of validity research and Michelle Barry, Specialist Home Enteral Feed Dietitian for co-designing the research data forms and electronic version of the tool.
With thanks to: King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, West London Mental Health NHS Trust) for feedback in the development of this tool.
Also acknowledging all 12 participating research sites for the validation study: Barts Health NHS Trust, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland), Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, Doncaster & Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Fife (Scotland), The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Swansea Bay University Health Board – NHS Wales, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Various guidelines and consensus opinion were used for the content design.