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Curious person, I would like to know what sort of foods are served to patients in USA hospitals? Does food served change by state ? I have google searched some hospitals but can only find the visitors foods cafetarias , restaurants but nothing else about what hospital food is served. Anyone know this ?
Here in the Lehigh Valley of eastern Pennsylvania we have two competing hospital systems. One is Lehigh Valley Health Network and the other is Saint Lukes Health System .
In December of 2011 I was hospitalized for five days at a hospital in the Lehigh Valley Health System with kidney stone related complications.
The food service was provided by a contracted third party. The nurse gave me a a rather substantial menu from this food service since I was not on any dietary restrictions.
You could request food anytime within their ordering hours by calling a toll free phone number listed on the menu with your bedside telephone.
I was curious as to where I was calling so I asked the representative I was ordering my meals from where they were located and was told that I was speaking to Omaha Nebraska.
The food orders are taken there then sent electronically to the kitchen staff at the hospital.
I could order hamburgers, hotdogs, a steak, french fries, halibut, Salmon, Oatmeal, bacon and eggs, waffles, pancakes, fresh fruit as well as a variety of desserts.
The food quality was good and the service was fast. The food was charged to my hospital bill not unlike a hotel charges your credit card for room service.
I cannot say anything bad about the food or the experience of ordering it while in the hospital.
It obviously depends on whether or not there are dietary restrictions. And it also depends on the hospital's status as private, public, for-profit, not-for-profit,etc. It can vary wildly--from general institutional style food to fine dining quality. I've worked at hospitals that served food on a par with prison meals, & some that served lobster tails & steaks complete with finger bowls, warm towels, & a small vase of flowers.
My experience as a one-time hospital volunteer and just visiting friends and family in hospital:
In part, what hellpaso said. I have volunteered in a very upscale private assisted-living facility where (dietary restrictions excepted) residents could order wine or beer with their meals and fairly deluxe meals served with cloth napkins and, yes, vases of flowers. But of course that comes with a cost.
City/county hospitals tend to offer a decent, albeit bland, menu consisting of one vegetable, one protein, one carb. Plus dessert and maybe a salad or coleslaw. Patients/residents usually get a daily menu and they can choose their next day's meals. There's a fairly large Middle-Eastern population where I live, so there's usually a Halal offering plus a vegetarian one. I imagine people who eat kosher, or vegan and so on could request special meals but I'm not sure about that.
Only one complaint about the food from my recent hospital stays.
In the cardiac ward, a request for pharmaceutical-grade heroin is more likely to be fulfilled than one for just a single grain of salt. Who can eat scrambled eggs totally without salt? Blah.
Only one complaint about the food from my recent hospital stays.
In the cardiac ward, a request for pharmaceutical-grade heroin is more likely to be fulfilled than one for just a single grain of salt. Who can eat scrambled eggs totally without salt? Blah.
Hey--15 years ago you wouldn't have been allowed scrambled eggs in a cardiac unit!
In my area, there are two hospitals. One has terrible food. The other hospital has restaurant fine dining type food for the most part. Each patient can order off a menu that is in the room. If your doctor has assigned special dietary requirements, the person who takes the order knows that from your record and helps you order food if you aren't able to have your first selection. You can have as much as you want and anytime during the open hours, you can order.
There are sections like: Sandwich Bar, Pasta Bar, Taco Bar, Entrees, Hamburgers, Fish, Hot Dogs, Breakfast items (and some all day), Dessert Bar, Ice Cream, Drinks, etc. The meal is delivered within 45 minutes and usually much quicker than this. If a patient isn't able to order for himself/herself, a nurse will order it for you. Visitors can order meals for $7.00 per person and have it delivered with the patient's meal. The patient's meals are not billed separately. They are just included in the high cost of medical care in this area (the other hospital with horrible food actually charges more per day for inpatient care).
Note: I have eaten at the hospital with the good food three different times this year unfortunately!
For a long time hospital meals were nutritionally balanced, but not very tasty, bland and boring. And complaints about hospital food were quite common. Then, as hospitals started competing to fill their beds and build their revenues, some began seeing serving better quality food as a way of rising above the ordinary. Today hospitals which handle a lot of elective surgery often have meals to rival a fine restaurant, because they are seen as a way to appeal to customers who have a choice.
Public hospitals, on the other hand, can still deliver staggeringly unappetizing meals, sometimes provided by lackadaisical canteen vendors. It all comes down to money.
Here's an interesting piece of hospital food trivia... a leading edge feature of many high end restaurants today is called sous vide cooking, using temperature controlled waterbaths to cook food precisely and then hold it for hours without any loss of quality. Sous vide is a signature cooking method of such celebrated chefs as Thomas Keller and Nathan Myhrvold. But it was initially developed in Swedish hospitals to provide higher quality food to their patients.
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