A look into how the development of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare in 2010 served as the beginning of the transformation of hospital food.
With hospital reimbursement rates relying on patient satisfaction rates, hospitals began modeling their food distribution to a room service system rather than sending out food at scheduled meal times (Solnik, 2013). Not only has this reduced food costs and increased overall satisfaction rates, but nutritious, fresh food leaves patients excited to shift through the menu for their next meal.
I question why hospital food is still dreaded after the implementation of Obamacare. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a nonprofit health organization created a Hospital Food Report Highlighting Hazardous and Healthy Hospital Food Environments in 2016, ranking hospitals on a point based system determined by the presence of locally sourced fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fast food establishments. The top runners with a grand total of ninety points include Aspen Valley Hospital in Colorado, offering Meatless Mondays and Stony Brook University Hospital in New York, which uses produce to cook hospital meals from the 2,242-square-foot organic rooftop garden. In last place is the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Mississippi, home to a Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s. Contracts with fast food restaurants in hospitals contain agreements to pay the hospital a percentage of their gross sales once an amount of money is generated by the fast food restaurant. The PCRM obtained the Mississippi Public Records Act which requires the medical center to “make every reasonable effort to increase the sales and business and maximize the Gross Receipts of each Unit” (PCRM, 2016). Through this contract, the university hospital is required to market and promote consumer awareness of Chick-fil-A products. Using this example has shown the discrepancy and difference between what approach hospitals in the United States take after the implementation of Obamacare. On one hand, hospitals correlate healthier food with higher satisfaction rates, while others view familiar comfort food as the source of higher ratings.
Hospitals that have reformed their food creation and distribution system to offer patients a menu containing more plant based options to order from anytime view the switch as the result of increasing patient satisfaction scores. Thousands of dollars are saved by offering patients a room service style way to order meals, as the system before involved scheduled meal times resulting in unopened Jell-O cups and untouched mystery mush with gravy. Medicare surveys do not explicitly ask about food, yet Rex which is part of the University of North Carolina Health System, attributes their modified culinary efforts to their better than average ratings when compared to other hospitals nationally (Tonges, Ray, Herman, Mccann, 2018). Although the term “comfort food” is subjective, many Americans view carb and meat heavy products, common throughout fast food, as comforting. The income from placing fast food establishments in hospitals is significant, otherwise they would be closed nationally. Providing familiar fast food for patients gives the hospital an opportunity to gain and save money- opting out of food served from the hospital kitchen and buying from the cafeteria or third party dining gives the hospital a share of its profits and save money on food that would have been made for them. There is no way to know if reforming the traditional hospital food approach or not produces or saves the most capital, but whether or not change was made reveals how a hospital views food in terms of wellness.
Works Cited
Claude Solnik. (2013). Obamacare putting focus on hospital food. Long Island Business News.
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. (2016). 2016 Hospital Food Report Highlighting Hazardous and Healthy Hospital Food Environments.
Tonges, D., Ray, D., Herman, D., & Mccann, D. (2018). Carolina Care at University of North Carolina Health Care: Implementing a Theory-Driven Care Delivery Model Across a Healthcare System. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 48(4), 222–229. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000603
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