Many of the more than 500 U.S. hospitals working with Healthy Food in Health Care, an initiative of the national not-for-profit Health Care Without Harm, are reducing their overall meat purchases and the use of antibiotics in the production of meat they serve, according to an article on the Modern Healthcare website.

Beyond simply serving healthier meats in their facilities, they hope to create more demand for these products and nudge the U.S. agricultural industry to change its practices, the article said.

“The dollar leverage that we have in the hospital systems is huge, and that can actually change the industry,” Eecole Copen, sustainable food programs coordinator at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Hospital in Portland, said in the article.

The University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle has announced that its pork and poultry products will be 100% antibiotic-free. UCLA Health System announced that its two largest hospitals are serving antibiotic-free beef and chicken. OHSU Hospital has partnered with a local beef producer to source antibiotic-free beef. 

But hospitals going this route face the reality that reduced-antibiotic meat and poultry products are more expensive and finding vendors with an adequate supply is a challenge, the article said.

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