Hospital Food Gets Fresh and Tasty

By: Jean Johnson for Body1

If the phrase “fresh and locally grown” sounds like an oxymoron when paired with “hospital food,” perhaps the cutting edge in cuisine for the infirm – not to mention their visitors and the staff that cares for them – has yet to make its way to your neighborhood’s hospital. But if national trends continue as experts expect, the wait shouldn’t be more than a few years.

Take Action

Healthy food tips to try in your own kitchen (from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute): Try fat-free (skim) or low-fat (1%) milk Try to eat fruits and vegetables without butter or sauce Choose lean cuts of meat, fish, and skinless turkey and chicken Use light mayonnaise instead of the regular variety Use low-fat cheese instead of regular cheese Cool soups and gravies and skim off fat before reheating them Try adding salsa on a baked potato instead of butter Make a meatloaf with lean ground turkey Eat fruit for dessert, instead of pie or cake For more information on improvements for hospital food, visit Betterhospitalfood.com

Increasingly directors of nutritional services and dining managers are joining forces with executive chefs trained in doing things like adding freshly toasted and ground spices to dishes instead of cooking them into food where the subtle flavors are all but lost. And that’s only the beginning of the dent in the bland façade generations have understood as hospital food.

“She really did,” said Providence Portland Medical Center’s executive chef, Richard VanRossum. “She’s an employee who likes the food so much she invited a friend out to dinner and brought him here – on a date. I did pinon crusted halibut seared right in front of them.”

The Portland, Oregon woman gutsy enough to haul a man into a hospital on a Saturday night, dined in Providence’s cafeteria that serves visitors, staff, administration and physicians. That’s only half the equation in the hospital food revolution, but it’s a significant one.

Tony Clifford, assistant director of nutritional services at Providence notes that grassroots demand was a key to the transformation. “The consumer and customer drive what we do here,” said Clifford. “What we find in healthcare is that it’s kind of half business and industry and half retail. And in the case of hospitals, we found that we were typically three to five years behind what students were getting in college as far as health and selections and variety. So once they graduated and went into the medical field to work, they found the food wanting. Pricing was not as much of a factor. They simply wanted more healthful, tasty things to eat, and we’ve responded to that demand.”

Patient dining manager at Providence, Tina Kisor notes that the same dynamic is taking place on the floors upstairs where patients are trying to recuperate. Called “food on demand” by those in the business, the gist is that the old stainless steel trolleys arriving with gray peas and mashed potatoes are poised to become relics right along with the cans that held the peas.

“For years meal service for patients was designed around scheduled times, and whatever the needs of the hospital were. Patients have changed, though, and they increasingly tell us they want input into when and what they eat,” Kisor said. “It gives more control to the patient. We’ve looked at other hospitals that are using this model and it’s been very successful. Patient satisfaction has risen; nurses like it; visitors like it.”

Kisor adds that data on Providence’s pilot program started in 2005 indicates that “there will actually be cost savings in the supply area because right now food is wasted. So we’re hoping that decreases in supply costs will offset the increases in labor if there is any.”

As far as who will fetch and tote for patients ordering off menus on their own schedules, Providence has developed what it calls a “host program” of people assigned to nursing units. “Right now the host program delivers hot washcloths after meals. They also take newspapers to patients and meet any other special request. They work 12-hour shifts, and so they know what you’ve had for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Clifford said. “Most patients stay three days and chances are they will have the same host each of those days – people that will remember that you like cream with your coffee.”

Ted Greene, production manager at Providence who oversees the production and preparation of food for both patients and cafeterias, was involved in the creation of the menu for the food on demand program. “One of the first and easiest things we did was to use a lot of fresh herbs to bring flavor without compromising nutritional needs,” Greene said. “In addition, parts of the menu are intentionally designed to offer bolder choices. In a traditional tray line we had traditional dishes like meat loaf and gravy. Now tofu is there. And all of the breads by default are whole grain. If patients want white, we can supply that as well, but we want to give healthy options and make it easy for people to choose well.”

Greene also pointed out that because the medical center buys from local producers and cooks food in small serving-size portions only after a patient has ordered it, purchasers are able to take advantage of seasonal offerings. “When local yellow wax beans came into season, we used them. And the same for oyster mushrooms. Because we’re able to mix and match and offer lots of choices, there’s no problem if it’s green beans one day and asparagus the next. We get to use both because they’re the finest, not just because they were on a pre-planned menu that we served to all 300 patients in the hospital.”

Sold? We here at Body1 are salivating as we write. Not to say we plan on becoming patients any time soon. But the seared halibut does sound quite good. And Chef VanRossum says there’s a mean roasted pineapple vinaigrette to dress the salads as well – salads made with a lovely selection of greens unmarred by even the tiniest shred of iceberg.

Last updated: 31-Oct-05