I fasted for more than 12 hours prior to my blood test this morning and then afterwards I went to the hospital cafeteria and ordered a standard breakfast: two eggs, hash browns, bacon, and an OJ. Cost: $4.15 Everything was delicious but I was starving so I could have been biased. It was your basic diner food. I noticed that they had available the cholesterol free egg substitute.
There was a real chef cooking (cheer!), but they use styrofoam and all plastic (jeer). There were no veggies out that I saw, but there was fresh fruit. I would have grabbed some but it was right then that I realized that they only take cash (jeer) and I was out. So I had to drop everything and run to their ATM. By the time I came back, I was famished that I just wanted to eat that I just paid as quickly as possible.
From my limited experience in hospitals, I believe this food to be better than most. Real cooking is important! What kind of experiences have you had with hospital food?
I spent three weeks in the hospital in 2006 having Chemotherapy. I found their food to be very good. They actually offered room service from 7am to 7pm with a wide selection of things on the menu. Breakfast was from 7 to 11 and lunch/dinner from then until 7. As I was "only" having chemotherapy there was no restriction on how much food I could have or what I could have. Over 3 weeks I tried just about everything and the only thing I would *not* have had again was the beef stir fry. Everything else was excellent.
I worked at a hospital for awhile and the cafeteria had really good food as far as hospitals go. However, that's not always the case.
Especially when you are the patient.
I did a nursing clinical at a local hospital (12 years ago) and the cafeteria there was already working on reducing sodium, had removed salt shakers from the tables, and were offering more healthy fare. That being said, even though it was "fresh cooked", once slapped onto a plastic tray, it still looked and tasted like "cafeteria food". But, they did offer some good, healthy soups, and fresh fruits were also readily available.
I had surgery at the age of 15 at Phoenix Children's Hospital (unique circumstances) several years ago. As I recall, the food was rather well done and the menu was quite varied. I was quite impressed by the contradiction of the common folklore that all hospital food is bad. It has been suggested to me that children's hospitals might fare better on average than others.
My daughter was in the hospital for about four days not too long ago. The food wasn't "terrible," but wasn't something I'd be rushing back to try. I tried the lasagna one night and that was a HUGE mistake; I really didn't think anyone could mess up lasagna, but apparently you can. Surprisingly enough, the hospital made fresh-baked cookies every morning and they were melt in your mouth wonderful.
When I have been a patient the food has been good at each of the hospitals I stayed at, but when I worked at a hospital (night shift) the food was less appetizing. The food the patients got was far better than what was served in the cafeteria in the middle of the night, I suspect it was probably better food in the cafeteria in the daytime though.
Last fall, as my mother was dying from cancer, I pretty much lived at our regional hospital for three months. IF I got a chance to eat, it came from the hospital… for three months, yes. So I became pretty familiar with their food, and overall I was very impressed – extensive salad bar, a variety of entrees offered at both lunch and dinner, large variety of drinks (with discounts for using re-usable mugs/cups). The food was good quality, tasty, and VERY inexpensive – they didn't try to gouge people with no other alternatives. I saw everyone from surgeons to custodians to volunteers to visitors to patients eating the cafeteria food, which was available 24 hours daily. The DID use styrofoam/plastic, which is unfortunate, but so many things were good/right about what they WERE doing, I won;t complain (too much). The cafeteria, and it's good food, were a godsend to me during a difficult time.
I was in the hospital for about 5 days, 2 years ago and the food was really good actually. I know they have chefs and the cafeteria in the hospital was fully staffed.
I also volunteered at the same hospital the year before and I know they try to keep the food "decent". I'm not sure about other hospitals, but I think generally they do a good job at it.
It's been a few (like 8) years, but the last hospital food I had was at Hartford Hospital and it was GREAT! They had a real chef there, too, and the food selection and quality was wonderful. You had several choices of what meal you wanted and there was always a decent vegetarian option. You could also special order your meal (low salt, low fat, etc.). Really made a bad situation better!
I work at UVM, next to Fletcher Allen hospital, and we always go eat over at the hospital! The food is SO good, and for the most part healthy, with many local ingredients, and vegetarian options. It's wonderful.
It used to be disgusting, but a couple years ago, they made some major changes.
It's also incredibly affordable!
http://www.fletcherallen.org/services/administrative/nutrition_services/
Well the last time I was in the hospital was March/April 2002 with the birth of our daughter. My first night there was Easter Dinner (our daughter was born on Easter Sunday) and it was horrible. My wonderful husband made a traditional Easter dinner when I got home later in the week. They did give me an Easter Basket with lots of chocolate. ;O) The rest of the food was bland.
I've been taking my dad to chemo treatments a lot lately and spent several days at the hospital in January, so I got to try a variety of their foods.
I am disappointed that so much of the food they serve is fried or loaded with fat or sugar. Most of what I ate tasted pretty good. Not restaurant good, but better than school cafeteria food. I'd like to know the actual nutritional content of some of it.
Mrs Q, I think you're addicted to photographing food. I'm just kidding though, but that reminds me of a meal I had on a ferry one time.. I hadn't eaten in about 12 hours (stuck at airports and on trains late at night) so by the time we were on the ferry I was famished (and cranky). I ate it all so quickly and the rocking of the boat made me throw up. Good times.
I was on hospital bedrest for a few weeks prior to having my twins so I have lots of experience with hospital food! All the patients on the women's services floor can order from a small menu between 7a-7p. The menu is always the same. As far as the food- it wasn't terrible but it wasn't wonderful either. There were very few healthy choices and a lot of it was very greasy. All in all, I was pretty disappointed!
@Ailish — My husband thinks the same. He told me "Old habits die hard!"
I've only been in two hospitals (Nationwide Children's and Cleveland Clinic) for breakfast. I believe both were slightly better looking than this (but then I was totally strung out on heavy narcs and seds both times), the hash browns look funny to me for some reason. Lack of veggies for breakfast isn't surprising…but the price seems a bit high for 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, and some weird hash brown stuff.
In the last six months, I've stayed at two different hospitals three times for 2-3 nights each for various reasons. The first two times were at the same hospital, but different floors. The first floor had a room service type deal-we dialed a number between 6 am and 10 pm, and could order anything off an extensive menu. We could order as much or as little as we wanted. The food was delicious! I would have willingly eaten that food if I didn't have to be admitted to the hospital in order to eat it. The next time at the same hospital, they had a menu system. The night before, we would fill out a sheet on what we wanted for each meal. That stay, I was NPO (nothing by mouth) for about half my stay, and then the rest of the time I was on a restricted diet (I had ulcers covering my esophogus, so anything that I ate hurt to swallow). The first night I was able to eat, they brought me a barbeque beef sandwhich (I didn't get to order myself, because they weren't sure when the dr. would clear me to eat). The sauce on the beef was so spicy I could only eat one bite, and my chest hurt for hours. The rest of my stay I got to order, so it wasn't that bad. It was a little bland, but I think that's only because I had limited options due to my condition.
The third time I stayed in a different hospital, and the food was GROSS! They also had a menu system-the night before you would circle each item you wanted, but this time, the menu was divided into sections, and you could only choose a certain number of items per section. After staying in the ER for over 8 hours, I finally got admitted around 11 pm. I hadn't had dinner, and they didn't have any extra food for me to have for dinner (each other time, the ward had at least ice cream and jello). Since I got there so late, the nurses didn't have me fill out a menu, so the first day I was just given random food. Half of it was stuff I wouldn't eat normally (I don't eat bacon, pork, tomatoes, and most potatoes). The next day, when I was able to choose, 95% of the main entrees were fried or pizza. I think you could get a deli sandwich on white bread if you wanted. I was also pretty miserable because they automatically give you tea and water at every meal. I don't like tea. Every drink they had was decaf, so half the time I was there I think I was going through caffiene withdrawal. After the first day, I realized how gross the food was, so I ended up eating grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, and corn for pretty much every meal, because they were a combination of foods I would eat that weren't completely gross.
I work at a hospital, and the cafeteria food is pretty good. Different kinds of salads, a salad bar, healthy and not so healthy sandwich options, usually some kind of baked fish or chicken with side dishes that include steamed veggies, sushi, and the usual burgers, fries and pizza. One of my complaints when I began working there four years ago was that the healthier foods often were tasteless, but that's improved a lot. There's also an emphasis on using local produce, and in the summer they even have a sort of limited farmer's market where employees can purchase raw local produce and take it home.
There's a difference between the food you can purchase in the cafeteria and the food that inpatients get, though. That's not to say that the dietitians deliberately give the patients bad food, but dietary restrictions restrict what they can do. One issue is that lots of our patients don't usually eat the best diets (which often contributes to why they're in the hospital in the first place), and so when they are getting low-fat and low-sodium foods instead of fast food and fried chicken, it's pretty bland to them. Also, patients sometimes complain about getting food that's inappropriate for their condition, like your eggs and bacon just after waking up from surgery with nausea and a sore throat.
2 summers ago I worked as a PT aide in my hometown hospital…this hospital is very small and only makes lunch for about 40 employees plus patients – about 7 or 8 on a full day. The hospital kitchen offered coffee, water and iced tea all day, in addition to the vending machine full of cokes. The kitchen has about 5 hired cooks who make a full meal 3 times a day. I only ever had lunch there.
Some meals were a bit tasteless…I can specifically remember "Santa Fe Chicken" which was a baked chicken breast topped with Pace-tasting salsa. (a bit bland). A few meals were truly authentic Mexican or were grilled outside of the hospital – the burgers were amazing! The meals were very balanced with salad being offered every lunch/dinner. There were never any fresh fruits, though. 🙁 Another downside is that the hospital rotated through the the same basic menu every 2-3 weeks…which can make for a long 4 months…no complaints about the hospital food, though. It was great for $2!
I work in a hospital daycare, and some of our lunches are fabulous (I hate it if I realize I took a day off on turkey tetrazzini day!) and others are just awful. When I was in the hospital for 5 days after having my daughter 2 years ago (while working there), I honestly have to say the food we're served in the daycare was surprisingly better than the food I was served as a patient! (might have had some to do with I wasn't always able to eat it while still hot/warm) There are a few meals we have that I'll bring leftovers home for my family to eat.
In the past year and a half I've eaten at 3 hospitals. Once as a patient – I had just given birth and the food was great (I had to add salt but that was okay.) The next hospital I ate at was where my little sister was a patient and their cafeteria was pretty good. They had a salad bar and daily entrees (I never did breakfast.) The other hospital was a children's hospital attached to the aforementioned hospital and it was good they had entrees and many choices besides that. I'm pretty sure they all accepted payment besides cash (although I'm not sure about the hospital I gave birth in because I did not have to pay – it was all you can eat from 7am to 7pm.)
I spend way too many hours in hospitals (80 hours a week is our limit for residents). I am intimate with every meal that the hospitals in our system serve. Some of it's good, some of it's eh, not so good. The one thing I will say is that hospitals always have healthier options if you look for them. And almost universally it is very cheap.
Patients complain about the food but they often are on HEALTHY low sodium, cardiac, low fat, or diabetic diets. And it's HEALTHY and it's totally not what they're eating at home (hence the hospitalization probably) so they view it as bad or bland.
I've eaten at a couple different hospitals, twice while I stayed there for an extended period. That was at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. Their food is actually really good. It isn't fine-dining or anything, but there is a wide variety and they seem to use fresh ingredients. Of course, they also have fast food type fare available, but every hospital has that. When you are staying in a room, you get to choose from a limited menu, or I would have my mom go down to the cafeteria and pick something or fix me fresh fruits and veggies from the fresh bar. I've also eaten at Forsyth Hospital in Winston Salem and their food was really good!
Staph virus at 13. :\
The first dinner was pizza, but it tasted microwaved. The first morning, they didn't let me have breakfast because of blood work… which happened at 2:00 PM. After, I just had chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders, and they tasted normal and well. Bagels for breakfast, which tasted good. The only thing which was bad was the antibiotics made me lose my appetite.
On par it appears that hospitals do better than schools when it comes to feeding food to large groups of folks. For one people pay more. Also USDA regulations probably don't come into play.
Thanks for sharing your stories! When I was in the hospital after having my baby I loved it when I could just call for room service and food would just show up. That was the life! (Then I came home with the baby and things got much harder — looking back I'm sure had post partum depression). Those nurses rocked it and getting lactation help was great too.
Someone once said the worst food in America could be found in schools, hospitals and jails.
At least you had real eggs, not those pseudo powdered eggs loaded with questionable ingredients. I'm really not all that concerned about the cholesterol in real eggs. I wasted a decade making fat free oat bran muffins for my high cholesterol husband and along the way I found out that saturated fat was really not the problem!
I'd be more concerned about what sort of oil the eggs and hashbrowns were cooked in. Poor quality vegetable oils such as corn, soybean or cottonseed can do far more damage than those eggs!
How are we ever going to rid the world of all that styrofoam?!
I worked at an Adventist hospital for several years; Adventists follow a vegetarian diet as part of their beliefs, and my hospital, as the flagship in the area, had a vegetarian cafeteria. Unfortunately, they weren't very inspired – vegetarian meant lots of battered, deep-fried vegetables, soupy lentil casseroles, and grilled-cheese sandwiches. The salad bar was pathetic. The year before I left they revamped everything, including adding meat to the menus, and the improvement was dramatic. So were the price increases.
I had all my kids at another Adventist hospital in town; their food varied in quality, but was generally alright for two or three days' eating. I wouldn't want to have been stuck there for much longer, though. They were not strictly vegetarian, although they offered vegetarian menu items. Neither hospital prepares pork products of any kind.
I ate hospital food when i was in when i had my son last year. The food wasn't great. Breakfast was good, real eggs(hard boiled) toast, fresh fruit, milk, juice. Lunch was soup of some sort, bread, some kind of a pudding, milk. Supper was terrible, i remember the second day i was in, supper was Salisbury Steak and it reminds me of one of the lunches you ate. It was a very dry beef patty with some type of brown gravy, i'm sure the mashed potatoes were the instant flakes, bread, i don't recall any veggies or fruit. it came with rice pudding for dessert. Thankfully my mum brought me in a decent dinner.
The cafeteria food is ok, lots of sandwiches and hot foods you can order. fresh fruit, yogurt, milk, pop and lots of water.
I was always in and out of hospital between 1 and 5 for surgery, thankfully it was only day surgery as an outpatient so i never had to deal with hospital food. Then again if i did i don't remember lol.
When my first child was born, I recieved a slab of brown meat on white bread with brown gravy. I am sure there was a veggie, but I can't remember it. My sister took one look at the food and said, "Where do you want me to go?" We had Monte Cristos from Bennigans (I know, not healthy but yummy!). With my third child, we had moved cities and I was able to order from a yummy menu when I was hungry. I ordered a fruit plate with every meal and it was fresh and delish!
My niece was in the hospital almost a year ago for 8 weeks (near SIDS, extensive and persisting brain damage, we are lucky to still have her, albeit in a severly disabled form). The food was bland and processed. I remember watching my sister pick at canned green beans that had been cooked within an inch of thier death. The cafeteria had a Chick Fila, Subway and Pizza Hut. yep, real healthy choices for those of us visiting every day. I would spend 36 hours there and 36 hours at home (required by my family). I gained 6 lbs in 8 weeks.
The Seventh Day Adventist hospital in Denver is pretty good – it's a vegetarian cafe (because SDAs are vegetarian.)
I've had two wildly contrasting experiences. Four years ago the hubby was in hospital and the food was horrific. He had no choice in what he got served (fake meat patty, jello, etc.) and all patients got the same thing. The food in the cafeteria was burgers, various deep fried things and greasy/cheesy side dishes. There was a sad attempt at a salad bar with iceberg lettuce.
A few years earlier my nephew was in a different hospital (state run) and wow! He got to choose what he ate from an extensive menu and all the choices were healthy. The cafeteria had a wide variety of freshly made healthy food with not a greasy or fried thing in sight. I remember at the time being really impressed with the food options so I was expecting something similar when the hubby had surgery a few years later; after all, wouldn't all hospitals have healthy eating options?
Hospital cafeterias here in Spain, I've been in two and in both the food was as good as at an average cafe here, which is pretty darned good. The prices were slightly high, but not the gouging I've seen in Toronto where the food is HORRIFIC and the prices ridiculous, though in fairness I should say that I haven't been into one there for several years.
Hospital food served to the patients, had that once here in Spain, then I went out for groceries. It was so unbelievably appalling I was stunned. I honestly find it difficult the plum the depths of the horror of that meal. Probably someone had cooked it once somewhere and there were no plastic containers, but I went and snuck a whole bunch of food in or my daughter would have starved.
I want to keep this short: My last time I went, the food was acceptable/satisfactory, but they gave me milk, which they knew I could not eat, which is pretty ironic considering it's a hospital.
Since in the last year, I've become extremely lactose-intolerant and only recently experiencing severe problems with bread (even bread with no dairy products), to which I don't know the problem causing it.
I won't be trusting any type of food, including hospital food and special meals (like those served to people with certain needs on airplanes, for example).
Hospitals are notorious for feeding sugar and starch to diabetics. A friend recently had her gall bladder out and I got to see this first hand. It truly is horrifying.
For 18 months, I worked at a local hospital's "food & nutrition" department. Being in this role, I saw both the patient meals and what was served to the staff/visitors. While there were a few items on the "trayline" that were twice as many that tasted like paste. These meals, regardless of flavor, were always centered about a series of dietary restraints and requirements. The staff/guests had two areas where they could eat. The cafeteria was similar in setup to the trayline, except that more options were offered and the dietary restrictions were lifted. All in all these meals remained fairly healthy, just a bit more tasty. The coffee shop was like a more traditional fast order restaurant stand. Greasy fryer vats, burger grill, pizza machine, deli stand, sodas, candies, desserts of all types. While many of the staff preferred this location, so did many patients (against their doctors set meal plan).
I gave birth to triplets in 2005 and was in the hospital for about a month due to some complications, then visiting the hospital daily for a month after they were born while they were in the NICU. So altogether about 2 months of eating hospital food on a regular basis. The food was actually pretty good. As a patient I didn't have to eat my meals at set times – I could order off a menu. They offered some less healthy things (pizza, pancakes, milkshakes) but it didn't seem overly processed and they had plenty of healthier choices as well (cereals, salads, sandwiches, roasted chicken). They also had a nutritionist on staff to consult if you had special dietary needs or concerns (I had gestational diabetes). In the cafeteria there were always good choices available (fresh whole fruit, salads, yogurt, skim milk) along with a few less healthy options (burgers, chips, soda, etc.). There were certainly plenty of options for eating real, freshly-made, healthy food if that's what you wanted. It was also reasonably priced. If my husband was visiting me during dinnertime he could order a full dinner (like turkey with stuffing, green beans, and gravy and a drink) for $7.
I've been following this blog for a while but this is my first comment – thanks for all you're doing, Mrs. Q! I hope you enjoy lots of tasty lunches this summer. My triplets will be entering the public school system in fall of 2011 and you'd better believe I'll be paying close attention to the lunch menu.
I work at a hospital. And I am a faithful reader of your blog and often wondered if I should contact you and do a guest post about our cafeteria. I was also once a long term patient at this hospital, so I've got the cafeteria experience AND the patient experience. They're different. Believe me!
For a place that wants you to get healthy, the choices are often limited and not always the most healthy!
I LOVED my hospital food!!! Have spent a total of about 3 weeks at mary Birch hospital for Women in San Diego ,a nd their food is great! I actually miss the club sandwich…it was delish. Always a wide selection , fresh incredients and nothing beats homeade french fries…lol. Granted getting food brought up to me at my beck and call is always nice , myabe that added to my liking , but all in all it was really good.
I used to work in a hospital with a lot of choices. Visitors and employees could get food from a cafeteria or a deli in the lobby. Then there was a cafeteria for employees on another floor. The lobby cafeteria had Pizza Hut items, grilled items, a salad bar, and two menu items with sides. The deli had sandwiches and soups. The employee cafeteria had grilled items, a sald bar, and three menu items with sides. It was rarely the same thing from week to week and when I ate there I never had any complaints.
Post surgery, I was ordered to eat a bouillon broth and graduate to jello. I refused it, and said I wanted to suck on the oranges and apples that my husband brought for my nutrition and recovery.
I was "written-up" as a non-compliant patient. My regular physician was not available at that hospital, and the neurosurgeon did not specify that I could eat organic produce.
When I asked for a dietician, I was surprised to see that she was a woman who is in my Bernina Sewing Club for more than ten years.
She promptly told the staff to let me have anything I wanted.
I remained in the hospital for ten days. Although I ordered some meals from the menu, I could only recognize the fritatta. All other items that arrived could not pass as something related to nutrition. Those items were tossed out with other food scraps.
By the way, things at that hospital changed over the years. I understand that there is a full time composting staff. The quality of food changed, and the way it is disposed changed.
I spent five days in the hospital when my son was born. Four of those were in labor and delivery, and then one day we were boarders (while my son was in the special care unit) so no more "free" food.
Anyway, I thought the food was really good! I could order as much as I wanted, so I usually got an entree, a veggie, milk, salad and fruit. One night I did have a burger and fries, but other meals were chicken salad on a croissant with fruit, coconut tilapia with green beans, cheese tortalini with meatballs, a huge taco salad.
And since I gave birth mother's day weekend, every meal was accompanied by a chocolate covered strawberry! That was a nice touch… although by the last day I was so sick of them!
From working in several different ones to staying in several of them, none of them had good food. The food was bland, rarely fresh, and always had a horrific aftertaste. Usually the servings came out looking like little domes (from a scooper device maybe?) and the texture was very sticky. The hospital cafeterias had a wide range of foods available, but nothing screamed of too healthy. Some even offered fast foods within the hospital. I don't think that qualifies as hospital food, but it was not really good either. When I knew I would have to stay in the hospital, I would have my husband bring me food from home and I would just order fresh fruit and yogurt for my meals. I'd rather know what i am eating and that I am eating healthy.
My most recent experience with hospital food was that the hospital could not feed my food allergic child when he was admitted!
At least they admitted they had no idea how to do it. They gave me vouchers for $5 per meal to use inthe cafeteria since he couldn't eat the food. I had my husband bring my son's foods every day we were there.
The bad part was there was little in the cafeteria I could eat in the same room with him (he's really very allergic and too small to remember to stay away from my food) unless I wanted a piece of whole fruit and some water for every meal!
Eventually I discovered they had a health food store in the hospital that took the cafeteria vouchers, so I was able to find acceptable items there, but it was more expensive, so I got much less food.
I had to stay overnight for a late emergency appendectomy. I ended up staying through the next day because of allergic reactions to medication.
There was one phenomenal meal that I remember and another meal that I despised. (my breakfast consisted of broth…nothing spectacular)
For lunch, I was served the most DELICIOUS chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat bread that I can ever remember consuming. I can't recall what else was served with lunch…jello and apple juice and something else?
For dinner, I was served the dryest slices of turkey breast EVER. It came with "cranberry jelly" packets that were most unappealing and a very dry serving of stuffing. The hospitals attempt at "thanksgiving dinner" was quite pathetic…and no, it was not thanksgiving when I was in the hospital.
All meals were served on/in dishware…reusable, thick, dishwasher safe plastic plates, bowls and trays. The only trash came from individually wrapped plastic utensils and those awful jelly packets. (as well as juice cartons and servings of jello) I assumed, then, that the chicken salad sandwich, turkey, and stuffing were all being hand made in a large kitchen somewhere in the hospital, but I never asked.
I was born with malrotation and was not able to properly eat for about 19 years. I tasted food and ate what I could, but not properly eat. Because of this condition, my main nutrition had been TPN by IV. Of course, this meant frequent hospital stays.
The hospital I used to go to had you circle whatever you wanted to eat. A lot of times the food tasted mediocre if not horrible. Rarely did I ever taste anything good. The burger looked exactly like the meat patties you ate during school lunch, the chicken tenders had way too much black pepper on them, the fishsticks smelled like they were kept under a heating lamp for a month, and the pork roast broke my plastic knife once. More often than not, my meals was ketchup. Salad dressing if I wanted to be zesty. Mustard if I felt bullet-proof. One time when I was being admitted, I told the admitting nurse the doctor said no vegetables (he was doing a diet experiment). She put me down as a vegetarian!
When I was about to turn nineteen, I switched to another hospital in order to receive an intestines transplant. Huge improvement! At first I was only allowed broth and jello. Gradually, I graduated to oatmeal, pudding, rice, and plain sandwiches (no cheese). Sure, I got bored eating the same things over and over again, but they were certainly a lot more tasty than the other hospital. Now that it's been over a year and a half since the transplant, I pretty much eat whatever I want (except raw veggies and gassy foods). If I have to go back to the hospital, I can circle what I want to eat, like at the previous one, and they brought it out. I've had chicken pot pie, roast beef wraps (it was rather annoying picking out the lettuce and tomatoes, but the wrap was very tasty), tomato soup, cheese and bell pepper omelet; they've all been very tasty. The burgers still look like your school cafeteria's meat patties and a piece of angel food cake was bluish green (at least the menu said it was angel food cake), but the rest of the food there is great!
One other hospital I almost forgot about. During spring break, I needed an emergency blood transfusion (it was then I learned I am anemic). This time I didn't pick what to eat because I was kept in the emergency room my entire stay, but it was still pretty good. I don't know what it was, but it tasted like chicken and it looked liked it had some dumplings in there, too; and it had lemon meringue for desert. Pretty good, not great, but not mediocre either.
my husband spent a week in the hospital last year, and being and Adventist hospital, they serve no pork products. They get creative though with substitutions (apple turkey sausage- wonderful!) and do a great job offering lots of great, healthy choices. There's a lot of variety and I was probably able to eat healthier during his stay than I would normally (salad and fruit daily, lowfat yogurt, protein shakes, etc) at home. Of course, the food was fantastic if you chose off their regular menu, though, and healthier choices there, too. They have a 'world class' chef there, which is a nice bonus.
and even if you got something at the cafeteria to take back to his room (they even offer guests room service)it was served on real plates with silverware. They even had little fridges on the floor stocked with healthy sugar free snacks available for patients and guests. Overall it was great (but their coffee was atrocious!!)
I work in a hospital that has a "heart healthy" cafeteria. They serve everything on whole wheat breads and buns (even the pizza dough is whole wheat). A salad bar and fresh fruit are always available. They have some unhealthy options but do a very good job serving fresh and healthy foods. I work nights and we have the same options as the days. The hospital also has a garden fresh program that teaches its employees about gardening and making foods from fresh ingredients, they have cooking demonstrations several times a month.
I worked at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. The cafeteria offered a wide variety of meals from a sandwich made to order to standard hot entree fare. They also would offer a "healthy choice".
For the patients, "room service" was open from 7am – 7pm and the kids could order additional meals or snacks. If they missed a meal because of a test or procedure, they could still get something to eat besides saltines, boullion, and jello. Here is a link to the room service menu.
http://www.childrensmercy.org/Content/view.aspx?id=2509
Mrs. Q, I love your blog!!
My experiences weren't bad, but I did want to second what frogfarm said. My mom is diabetic, and I can't count the number of times she's been served TOTALLY unbalanced meals, with more sugar than she would ever be allowed. 🙁 I've never been able to figure out whether this is just sloppiness, or whether she or we are supposed to speak up and order her diabetic-friendly meals. So far, we've just mentioned it to the nurses.