An innovation project was established to develop a care home blended oral nutritional supplement (BONS) range.
The BONS range is called ‘Shake Up’; it consists of 18 different nutritional supplement drinks which mirror the macronutrient content of standard range ONS. These would be made by the catering teams of the care homes.
BONS have been successfully developed and taste tested and can replace 85% of prescribed ONS. The recipes have been designed to be cost-effective, easy to prepare and have a sufficient shelf-life. Unlike prescribed ONS, BONS are based on natural ingredients i.e., milkshakes are made from fresh milk and juice drinks are made from 100% fruit juice.
To support the project, clinical information, patient and carer guidance and recipe documents were developed. The project dietitian worked with care homes to train staff, review existing prescribing, and switch service users to the new range of supplements.
Clinical outcomes measured included weight, BMI, weight change and percentage weight change. ‘Shake Up’ currently costs £5.39 per day or £1969 per year and these expenses are taken on by the individual CH.
The project was started in January 2020. We supported one CH to switch all their service users to ‘Shake Up’ but unfortunately, the covid outbreak meant we had to put the project on hold. We developed training videos so that we could support care homes remotely and managed to get another care home using Shake Up.
Following this early success, the scheme is now being rolled out to all care homes in the area. Using these drinks has demonstrated a 7.6% (3.5kg) weight gain in a 5-month period.
