NUTRIC Score (Nutrition Risk in the Critically Ill)

When it activates

Scribeable activates a calculator from the encounter. The NUTRIC Score (Nutrition Risk in the Critically Ill) can activate when the transcript or pasted chart context documents any of these:

• ICU nutrition risk assessment
• Critical care nutrition planning
• Enteral vs parenteral nutrition decision
• ICU nutrition support evaluation
• Critically ill nutrition screening

Note-type scope: it activates on notes whose subject resolves to critical care. A note that resolves to another subject does not carry it even when the clinician's specialty matches; a note with no resolvable subject (a generic consultation) falls back to the specialty match.

Inputs the note needs

1 input. Each is resolved from the transcript, the pasted chart context and charted labs; at this calculator’s tier a missing input is never requested, and a missing required input keeps the score out of the draft.

Scoring

Without IL-6 (modified NUTRIC, most commonly used): Age (<50=0, 50-74=1, >=75=2), APACHE II (<15=0, 15-19=1, 20-27=2, >=28=3), SOFA (<6=0, 6-9=1, >=10=2), Number of comorbidities (0-1=0, >=2=1), Days from hospital to ICU (<1=0, >=1=1). Score 0-9. With IL-6: add 0 (<400) or 1 (>=400). Score 0-10.

Interpretation

Score >=5 (without IL-6): High nutritional risk — patients most likely to benefit from aggressive nutrition therapy. Target caloric and protein goals early. Consider early enteral nutrition within 24-48h. Score <5: Lower nutritional risk — standard nutrition support adequate, permissive underfeeding may be acceptable in first week. Trophic feeds acceptable initially. All ICU patients should receive nutrition assessment within 48h. High NUTRIC patients with inadequate EN should be considered for supplemental PN by day 7.

Evidence

Sources carried in Scribeable's citation registry for this calculator; guideline version: Heyland 2011.

• Heyland DK et al. Identifying critically ill patients who benefit the most from nutrition therapy: the development and initial validation of a novel risk assessment tool (NUTRIC Score)Heyland et al. (NUTRIC) 2011 · 2011 · Level I · link last verified 2026-03-28

How Scribeable handles it in the note

When an encounter activates the NUTRIC Score (Nutrition Risk in the Critically Ill) (its highest tier is recommended), Scribeable does not ask you for missing inputs. The score is computed in code from whatever inputs resolve from the transcript, the pasted chart context or charted labs; a computed value is written into the draft only when every required input already resolves.

The score is computed in code from the resolved inputs, not recalled by the language model. If the draft states a NUTRIC Score (Nutrition Risk in the Critically Ill) value that disagrees with the computed one, the disagreement is flagged to the second drafting pass, which is instructed to correct the score and its interpretation before you see the note.

Classified as a risk score: activated strictly, by a documented trigger, never by a permissive reading of the encounter.

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Can activate in: Surgery, Pulmonology, Critical Care / ICU.