The era of "No-Hunger Hospital" is coming: clinical nutrition configuration, a new track that medical practitioners and catering entrepreneurs should not ignore

Over 20 million surgical patients every year. Who is responsible for their nutrition?

In the traditional medical system, surgery, drugs, and nursing are the core links, while patients' nutritional support is often regarded as "auxiliary". However, with the promotion of the concept of "hunger - free hospitals" and the implementation of policies for the construction of clinical nutrition disciplines, this situation is undergoing profound changes.

For practitioners in the medical and healthy catering industries, this may be a long - term track that has not been fully noticed.

Clear policy guidance: the construction of clinical nutrition departments enters the fast lane

In recent years, the National Health Commission has successively issued documents such as the "Guidelines for the Construction and Management of Clinical Nutrition Departments" and the "Notice on Further Promoting Clinical Nutrition Work", clearly requiring secondary and above general hospitals to improve the framework of clinical nutrition departments and promote the normalization of nutritional screening, assessment, and intervention.

Since 2025, with the full implementation of the new version of the evaluation standards for graded hospitals, clinical nutrition - related indicators have changed from "optional bonus points" to "hard - core assessments".

Among them, the nutritional risk screening rate requires the completion of the NRS2002 screening within 24 hours of admission, with the target reaching over 95%; positive patients need to complete a standardized assessment within 24 hours, with the same target of over 95%; the target for the standardized intervention rate of patients diagnosed with malnutrition is over 90%. Failure to meet the above indicators will directly affect the hospital's grade evaluation results.

It should be noted that the service fee for nutritional configuration is included in the hospital's medical income, rather than the catering income of the canteen or logistics. Medical income is an integral part of the hospital's core business income and directly reflects the hospital's medical service ability and revenue - generating level. This means that the nutrition department is no longer a simple "cost - incurring department" but a functional department with direct revenue - generating ability. This is a fundamental difference at the policy design and hospital management levels and is also one of the key driving forces for hospital decision - makers to promote the construction of the nutrition department.

At the on - site assessment for Class III Grade A hospitals: these details are being strictly checked

Taking the on - site implementation of the Class III Grade A hospital assessment in Shandong Province as an example, many details are included in the strict verification scope.

If the nutritional screening is not completed within 24 hours after admission, it will be directly regarded as a missed screening, and 0.2 to 0.3 points will be deducted from each medical record. If the screening result is positive but there is no SGA assessment record by a dietitian, it will be regarded as an invalid assessment. For key departments such as the ICU, oncology department, geriatric department, general surgery department, and burn department, a single missed screening will directly result in the deduction of quality control points.

This means that in the future, every hospital above the secondary level needs to build a standardized nutritional configuration room and be equipped with corresponding products, software, and an operation management system. This demand is giving rise to a market space worth hundreds of billions.

Why is this field worth paying attention to?

From a market perspective, clinical nutritional configuration has several distinct characteristics.

Large stock gap. There are about 13,000 hospitals above the secondary level in the country. Currently, the standardized coverage rate of nutritional configuration rooms is less than 30%. Nearly 10,000 hospitals need to be newly built or renovated in the next three years.

Rigid demand. Patients in the ICU, those with tumors, in the peri - operative period, with kidney diseases, diabetes, and chronic geriatric diseases generally have a risk of malnutrition. The use cycle of oral nutritional supplements is usually 4 to 8 weeks. The annual turnover of nutritional configuration services in a mature Class III Grade A hospital can reach 10 million to 30 million yuan, and this part of the income is included in the hospital's medical income, directly contributing to the hospital's core operating indicators.

Controllable investment and short payback period. Simple purification and renovation of the existing rooms in the hospital cost about 30,000 to 50,000 yuan; basic preparation equipment costs about 10,000 yuan; the supporting management software can adopt the annual fee or commission model, with relatively low upfront investment. From industry practice, the initial investment can be recovered in about 2 to 3 months, and the annual stable gross profit brought by a single hospital is between 2 million and 3 million yuan.

Strong sustainability. One cooperation can bring continuous benefits from product supply, software services, and extended business for 3 to 5 years.

The implementation path of clinical nutritional configuration

In the field of precision clinical nutrition, brands such as Amper Bio - Quanheshan have accumulated experience in co - building nutritional configuration rooms in many Class III Grade A hospitals and formed a replicable implementation model.

In terms of products, more than ten types of enteral nutritional preparations have been put into use, covering categories such as Quanheshan high - fiber nutritional powder, homogenized diet, short - peptide, high - protein, low - protein, low - fat, low - GI, balanced, and fiber - type. The dosage forms include powder and liquid, covering clinical scenarios such as the peri - operative period, ICU, oncology, kidney diseases, diabetes, and geriatric rehabilitation. All products are ordinary foods or special dietary foods and do not need to be approved by the pharmacy committee, so the process of entering the hospital is relatively simple.

In terms of software: The self - developed health management mini - program and the HIS intranet docking system can achieve full - process closed - loop management from nutritional screening, assessment, prescription issuance, preparation label generation to delivery receipt. The system automatically statistics the three key data of screening rate, assessment rate, and intervention rate to help the hospital meet the data reporting requirements of the grade evaluation.

In terms of operation support: Standardized support can be provided from the purification and decoration plan of the configuration room, equipment list, and filing materials to personnel training, quality control system, and department SOP. According to industry practice, the hospital can be assisted to enter the trial operation stage in as fast as 30 days.

In terms of revenue model: The hospital collects compliance preparation service fees through a non - medical account, which is included in the hospital's medical income. Medical staff can receive performance incentives, and the cooperation partner benefits from the product supply price difference and software service sharing.

Who is suitable to pay attention to this field?

Medical industry practitioners with resources of secondary and above hospitals, channel partners with good cooperation relationships with nutrition departments and hospital leaders, people with experience in promoting medical consumables or information technology projects, and catering franchise entrepreneurs who are optimistic about the long - term development of clinical nutrition can all pay attention to the progress of this field.

Make health simple, starting from a standardized nutritional configuration room.