Patients like Misericordia Hospital’s new menu service
Food program could save money
Faye Saunders is partial to pot roast. But she also likes hamburgers.
Although Saunders has been a patient at the Misericordia Community Hospital for about threeand-a-half weeks, she does enjoy one thing about her stay — the food.
“There’s no comparison,” she said. “The other hospitals — their food is bleh.”
Starting May 7, the hospital switched from having patients receive a meal on a tray to selecting food from one of the nine available menus. The menus include vegetarian, low sodium, regular, heart healthy, minced, pureed and others which can be ordered between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. A guest menu is also available.
It takes about 45 minutes for a meal to be delivered from the time the order is placed.
Studies have shown when patients eat food they like and enjoy, it improves the nutritional intake and results in faster recovery and better health outcomes, said Carol Lajoie, corporate director environmental supports at Covenant Health on Wednesday.
Misericordia Community Hospital is the first hospital in Alberta and the sixth in Canada to offer this service to its patients.
The hospital decided to make this shift when the equipment it used to deliver trays needed repairs estimated to cost about $1.3 million.
“We looked at the opportunity and said either we replace that and continue to have the same type of service, which is not really patientcentric, or we can look at opportunities,” said Linda Chow-Turner, senior operating officer, seniors care and environmental supports.
Lajoie said the hospital hopes to save between $150,000 and $200,000 per year in food that was previously wasted. A study on how much food was wasted was done last year before switching to the new system, and another study will be done this year to see how the menu service is helping.
“With the traditional service,
With the traditional service, we were throwing away at least 40 per cent of the food we sent to patients
we were throwing away at least 40 per cent of the food we sent to patients,” she said.
The menu might be reviewed twice a year, she said, with popular items staying on and others changed. Some specials will be offered for Canada Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
So far, salmon and Asian stir fry seem to be popular among patients, she said.
Lanette Lindgren has been a patient for one month and said her favourite food is quesadilla.
The new food program is not expected to cost more than the previous system, with increased staff expenses being offset by the decrease in food wastage.