Some hospital food becoming tastier

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - When Chelsea Groves's grandmother was in the hospital for 19 weeks, she visited constantly.

Which means that she ate hospital food every day - first at Lutheran Hospital, then at St. Joseph Hospital when her grandmother was transferred.

"Everybody says, 'Ew, hospital food,' " says Groves of Fort Wayne. "I was not thrilled at all to be eating hospital food every day."

But she was surprised at how good some of it was, especially the macaroni and cheese at St. Joseph.

"It's the best," she says.

The stereotypical hospital dinner platter might include some form of pot roast mystery meat, lumpy mashed potatoes, green beans so soggy teeth are optional and a gelatin snack with skin and fruit floating in the middle.

Not so anymore. There's the pizza oven for authentic, Italian-style crusts, and room service with made-to-order meals. The food is good enough that, staff members from both Lutheran Health Network and Parkview Heath Systems say, community members have treated their cafeterias like restaurants, using them as a dining destination.

One major benefit to treating a hospital cafeteria more as a restaurant and less as a factory is the specialization factor. At Dupont Hospital, when a patient calls for room service, the food preparation employees see who's calling, and they see the patient's dietary restrictions, says Jeff Kolkman, nutritional services specialist at Dupont Hospital. This makes it easier for a patient to get the appropriate food for his or her condition.

Just weeks ago, the hospital ushered out a new menu, sectioned off according to patient needs. Aside from breakfast, lunch and dinner, and late night menus, it separates out menus for special diets, including one for liquids and low-residue or heart-healthy low-sodium needs.

Plus, food can be part of the treatment - even for those who are not patients.

"Food can be healing, and that's the approach that we take," says Scott Tope, executive chef with Parkview Health Systems. "While we do have world-class physicians and a world-class staff, sometimes there are others that may not be treated by our staff (like family members or friends) who still need some healing in certain respects. Food is one of those areas we found can have a healing effect."

When Kolkman was hired at Dupont, he came from a food services background, and he wanted to surround himself with like-minded people. The goal was to have a staff that understood food, and he says no one on his staff come from health services - all have restaurant or catering backgrounds. It made it easier for Kolkman to stress the idea of quality over quantity, which isn't that common of a thought-process in the hospital food world. Small batch - many other hospitals nationally don't do that.

"When guests order food off that menu, nothing has begun," Kolkman says.

One of Dupont's most popular additions has been the build-your-own breakfast sandwiches, Kolkman says. Patients and guests get their choice of egg, meat, cheese and bread.

And, of course, there's the chicken quesadillas.

"Hands down," Kolkman says. "People literally seek us out for our quesadillas and our cheeseburgers."

Geoff Thomas, public relations supervisor for Lutheran Health Network, says when his wife gave birth at Dupont, he saw firsthand how much people enjoyed those dishes.

"We had some friends give birth here. They'd ask, 'How's the kid doing? Did you get a chicken quesadilla? Did you get a milkshake overnight?'" Thomas says. "It's odd, but it's funny. It's kind of a connection a lot of Dupont families have. It's one of those things you hear a lot."

The "least likely culinary machine to find in a hospital" award might go to Parkview Medical Center, which installed a pizza oven in March. It has become something of a favorite among guests, Tope says, as has the on-site bakery.

Also popular among patients and guests are the various food stations. The salad station has homemade dressings; at the deli sandwich station, patients can instead opt for panini or wraps. They can visit stations for world cuisines, a taco bar or pasta.

"We got a letter the other day from someone who said her kids were a little disappointed she was discharged because they couldn't go downstairs to the pasta station," Tope says.