Abstract

Purpose
Enteral nutrition is an efficient method of pro-viding nutrition, which has significant clinical advantages. However, it presents difficulties of ensuring an adequate supply and management because meal wages are in-surance-inclusive. By understanding the management sta-tus of enteral nutrition in hospitals in Seoul and seeking the opinions of experienced nutritionists on government- paid meal wages, we acquired basic data for review of patient meal wages and the insurance system. Methods: Investigation of medical institutions in Seoul was performed through a survey conducted from October 15 to October 31 2012. Twenty-eight questionnaires on the current situation and 103 questionnaires on individual opinions were analyzed. Descriptive analysis, chi-square test, and ANOVA were performed using PASW Statistics 18.0.Results: Regarding satisfaction with enteral nutrition, 93.0% reported that the major complication was diarrhea. Among the list of difficulties in case of complications, lack of diversity was 56.1%. The No. 1 influence in selection of enteral nutrition was ‘Cannot use expensive products because of insufficient medical fees,’ at 45.0%, while No. 2 was ‘Cannot use a variety of products because of in-sufficient medical fees’ at 26.3%. No. 1 in needs for im-provement of enteral nutrition was ‘modifications and complements to insurance fee,’ at 43.0%, No. 2 was ‘pricing by volume' at 26.0%. More than 98% of re-spondents answered that systematic development of in-surance fees for enteral nutrition according to type of hospital and management was needed.Conclusion: Development of various products and multi-ple team activities through the Nutrition Support Team are needed for the efficient supply of enteral nutrition. In addi-tion, the revision of cost reimbursement for health in-surance by understanding the current status, suggesting an appropriate level of enteral nutrition supply at a gov-ernment level and providing systematic procedures, in-cluding continuous evaluation tools and management, are urgently needed. (J Korean Soc Parenter Enter Nutr 2013;5(3):122-129)

• Keywords: Enteral nutrition, Medical insurance fee, Enteral nutrition insurance fee, Therapeutic diet insurance fee, Meal wages