5502V - Bedside vs. FEES Diet Recommendations in Acutely Ill Patients Hospitalized and Under Precautions for COVID-19

This study examined bedside swallow evaluation diet recommendations of patients with active COVID-19 infections admitted to the hospital and compared them to diet recommendations following flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES). We hypothesized that a bedside clinical swallow evaluation would result in a conservative recommendation of nil per os (NPO). Using electronic record system run reports, we identified patients whose primary diagnosis upon admission was COVID-19 without baseline dysphagia who received a FEES exam while on enhanced precautions. We compared diet recommendations following clinical swallow evaluations and following FEES exams. We found that 92.3% of patients were put on a diet following a FEES and 7.6% of patients were put on a diet following bedside clinical swallow evaluations.