Healthcare Facility Dining Programs Meet COVID With Innovation

Innovators in healthcare facilities met the challenges of COVID in different ways, according to an article on the Food Management website. 

At Norton Hospital in Louisville, Ky., for example, all on-site employees received a free meal voucher at the health system's expense beginning in late March. The result was that the hospital’s Compass One Healthcare dining team fed the entire hospital, including third shift, for approximately nine weeks, adding staff to cover the increase in business.

Spectrum Health Buttterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich. partnered with two local catering restaurants that were also severely affected by the pandemic to produce full microwaveable meals to go at a reasonable price, according to an earlier Food Management article. The meals were prepared in the restaurant catering kitchens, chilled, and  brought to the hospital.

At UF Health Shands Florida Hospital in Gainesville, dining staff started delivering food directly to COVID patients in August. One associate was trained per shift for the COVID unit. That associate stayed on the unit throughout her shift while a single designated cart was used to deliver the food and then thoroughly sanitized between each trip.

Read the full Food Management article