Ellen Loftis (left) and Becky House (right) are available to help any way they can. As registered dietitians at Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital, they spend their days helping patients, the community and their coworkers. Their job spans from evaluating malnutrition risk to follow-ups with patients, to catering for hospital events, to running a successful weight management program. They also conduct diabetes support group meetings for the community the second Thursday of every month.

“We consider nutrition a part of medical therapy,” Loftis said. “On admission every patient is screened for malnutrition risk. We follow up if they are at risk. We see them every three days and speak with them about their diet.”

The hospital also offers educational services to outpatients for diabetes, low salt cardiac and weight management, House said.

House has been a dietitian for more than 16 years. At the hospital, she provides patient and outpatient education and nutrition assessments and helps run the diabetes support group.

Loftis is director of nutrition services and has been a dietitian for more than 30 years. Some of her duties include writing a weekly nutrition column for the Herald-Leader, conducting the weight management program, helping with the diabetes support group and catering/food preparation.

“But the No. 1 focus is our patients,” Loftis said.

“Catering is huge,” House said. “We do several events a week.”

“The staff in our department is excellent,” Loftis added.

In fact, Teresa Ellis, certified dietary manager, recently was selected as Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital’s employee of the year.

Both Loftis and House have spoken about dietary needs during Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital’s brown bag lunch events which are catered by nutritional services. Some of the topics have included diabetes education, heart healthy diets and vegetarian cooking.

“We don’t offer recipes as much as we teach them to identify a healthy recipe and diets,” Loftis said.

“We also refer them to Web sites that can help,” House said.

One of the most popular programs the hospital offers is the weight management program. Loftis said in the five years she has been working on the program, more than 2,000 people have been enrolled in the class. “Our retention will run 40-50 percent. The national average is 10-30 percent,” Loftis said.

“The class teaches people why they need to do things” such as drinking milk or eating high fiber diets, Loftis said. “Things we as dietitians can do that other weight classes can not do.”

House and Loftis explained the difference between a nutritionist and a dietitian. A dietitian has to have a college degree, perform an internship and pass a national exam to attain the registered dietitian designation.

A registered dietitian is “a medical professional with a strong background in nutrition,” Loftis said.

“Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist,” House said. “When looking for nutritional information, people need to look for R.D. (registered dietitian).”

March 11 was Registered Dietitian Day across the nation.