Hospital Food

Katie Meadow · July 6, 2017

No better advice was ever given than W.C. Fields prescription for healing: "Rest and exercise, rest and exercise!" Of course it goes without saying, that was in addition to copious amounts of alcohol.

chromedome · July 7, 2017

...but never anything stronger than gin before breakfast.

liuzhou · September 23, 2017

I just read through this topic over two months later. It seems like something that happened to someone else, but I read about or saw the movie..

I know I moaned about the food and I suppose they do have patients with sodium related issues and cut back the seasoning. The nurses were utter stars as they always are. I have not been sick often, but had one frightening experience over 30 years ago where I nearly died. The British National Health Service and the most wonderful nurses kept my alive. I won't get into politics other than to say both the NHS and the nurses are treated shamefully. I love them all. I did have a couple of odd experiences in Chinese hospitals many years ago, but remember absolutely nothing about the food. In retrospect, those visits (2005 and 1997) seem amusing. Perhaps this year's will do the same some day.

Less sure about some of the doctors. Some were nice, but the guy in charge of my case was an arrogant prick, who misdiagnosed several times and actually told my daughter in London (indirectly) that I had heart failure! My ailment was not in the slightest bit heart-related. Naturally, my daughter completely freaked, booked her ticket from London to China to take back my remains before I was able to tell her I was fine, but starving!

It did take a few weeks to get back to full strength and regain the weight that I lost. I'm a skinny thing at the best of times, despite my eating habits. One Chinese colleague once told me that "All the female staff want your body!" I told him to tell them to queue up outside my apartment door and I'd see what I could do! To my great disappointment he only meant they wanted to lose weight.

I just want to say now, that the hospital nursing staff were a delight and also all the eG people who wished me well and hoped for my speedy return to normality really helped in the darkest times. Thank you. I also want to thank my two dear friends, the first of whom took me to the hospital in the first place and stayed with me all night despite having a busy work schedule the next day. And also my dear friend J, who was away on business during my hospital time, but looked after me when I got home. Love them both.

OK, before this sounds like an Oscar acceptance speech, I will just say again. Thank you.

Edited September 24, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

lindag · September 23, 2017

I'll admit when I saw this topic pop up again I had a sharp intake of breath, thinking you were back in hospital.

I'm thankful that you are not and that now you can look back it all, the good nd the bad with gratitude and humor.

Darienne · September 23, 2017

Glad you are well.

One of the saddest sentences from your post:

"Less sure about some of the doctors. Some were nice, but the guy in charge of my case was an arrogant prick, who misdiagnosed several times".

Because of my own physical ailments...what the heck! I'm 76...I've joined 3 major forums in the past two years...two for getting off medications and one for ahem...women's problems. The same thing I read over and over and over and over...you get my drift...is the horrible, arrogant, condescending, uneducated, lacking in ethical standards, lacking in intellectual curiosity...oh I could go on and on and on. Was it always like this? I don't seem to recall the doctors of my youth being like that...but then I was a youth. And we really didn't expect to live forever without pain and discomfort. It is just about the worst part of being ill. I could bore you with my own journey but that's the one thing which keeps on being brought home to me. Oh, and I forget to damn the pharmaceutical industry which has lately been called, with good reason, the equivalent of the mafia.

Rant over.

liuzhou · September 23, 2017

53 minutes ago, lindag said:

I'll admit when I saw this topic pop up again I had a sharp intake of breath

My apologies. I did foresee this problem, but couldn't think how to get round it.

3 minutes ago, Darienne said:

Rant over.

No need to apologise. We are being held hostage.

Although most of the doctors were OK.

Thanks for the Crepes · December 18, 2017

Hey y'all!

I'm back. I was not able to access the forums in the hospital and then in the nursing home where my husband has been for a little over a year. I got sent home on December 6, but it has taken me this long to catch up on all the great culinary goings on on here. I saved the printed menus from the hospital and made notes of the the meals for the last six days of the stay in the nursing home about the institutional food I was served. Everyone is told that the residents have access to the internet in the "Internet Cafe", and it took me over two weeks to realize this was a propaganda lie, or I would have made notes earlier. I broke my femur at the neck near the hip joint, so I needed some help to survive. I got it and I'm very grateful, but the institutional food I was exposed to was disappointing to downright horrifying for the most part. I thought I'd share some of the delicacies that are served up in my local health care institutions. I fell on November 9 at about 7:00 AM, but tried to muscle through on my own until about 7:00 PM, and finally called for help because I realized I had no choice. I wasn't allowed to eat anything that day to prep for surgery, so meals start at dinner on the next day, after the surgery.

Hospital:

11-10-17 Dinner

1 ea herbal salt substitute, black pepper

1 Smart Balance margarine cup (this stuff is horrible)

Cottage Cheese and soft fruit

1/2 c green beans (these were cooked from fresh, and not bad, but overcooked)

1 white roll (extremely small about 1 oz)

1 c decaf iced tea

11-11-17 Breakfast

2 salt substitute, 1 pepper

1 Smart Balance slime

1 syrup packet

1/2 c canned Mandarin oranges

Cinnamon French Toast 1 slice

Skim milk 1 c

Decaf Coffee 1 c

Lunch

2 SSub, 1 Pep

Margarine cup

Mayo I packet (not sure what I was supposed to put this on?)

Crax Low Sod 5 ea (crackers)

Grill Cheese Sandwich

LS ChixNdle Soup (no salt and none to correct it: inedible)

Whole Baby Carrots 1/2 c

Peach Cobbler 1/2 c (in name only, yuck)

Decaf Iced Tea 1 c

Okay, at this point, a kindly nurse intervened on my behalf on several points, but the one that applies here, is that someone paid attention to the fact that my blood samples were actually running low on sodium, so I was allowed salt from this point on. Thank you Sweet Jesus! Some of you have said in the Chef Interview thread that you think your most important ingredient is salt. Amen to that. That chicken soup above would have been very good with just a little salt. Without it, I couldn't even eat it.

Dinner

2 Sugar, Salt, Pepper 1 ea

Margarine Cup 1 ea (unfortunately this was still the same slime)

Cranberry Spinach Salad w/RaspVin (dried cranberries and this was actually pretty good, except the dressing could have used a little oil)

Turkey Sliced 3 oz (good real sliced turkey breast)

Chicken Gravy 1 oz (okay but stingy)

Dressing 1/2 c (I love dressing, but it needs onion and celery and parsley. This was just bread.)

Caribbean Vegs (Don't remember what this was, but it was edible.)

White roll (again about 1 oz)

Pumpkin Pie

Decaf Iced Tea 1 c

This meal was actually pretty good after putting the salt and pepper on the bland dressing, and what I needed after a two day fast and horrible health food the next day.

11-12-17 Breakfast

2 Sug-Salt-Pep 1 ea

Margarine Cup 1 ea

Jelly Packet 1 ea

Banana Whole 1 ea

Cheerios 1 small box

Egg, Scrambled 1 egg

Biscuit 1 ea (tiniest biscuits I've ever seen about 1 oz, not too bad though)

Bacon 2 slices

Skim Milk 8 oz

Decaf Coffee 8 oz

Lunch

2 Sug-Salt-Pep 1 ea

Margarine Cup 1 ea

Tossed Salad/French Dressing

Chocolate Ice Cream 1/2 c

Beef Stew 6 oz (This was mostly potatoes, which tasted canned. Left most of the potatoes.)

Lima Beans 1/3 c

Wheat Roll 1 ea (again teeny, about 1 oz)

Decaf Iced Tea 1c

Dinner

2 Sug-Salt-Pep 1 ea

Tartar Sauce 1 pkt (This had no mayo base. Supposed to be healthy? but inedible.)

Margarine Cup 1 ea

Spinach Salad/Rasp Dressing

Chocolate Ice Cream 4 oz

Red Skin Potatoes 4 oz

Green beans 1/2 c (canned and horrible, not eaten)

Wheat roll (cute, but tiny )

Cod, Lemon Pepper (cooked to rubber)

Decaf Iced Tea 1 c

11-13-17 Breakfast

2 Sug-Salt-Pep 1 ea

Margarine Cup 2 ea

Jelly Packet 1 ea

Peach Slices 1/2 c (canned)

Grits 1/2 c (Someone needs to teach them how to cook grits that aren't lumpy!)

Biscuit 1 (teeny)

Egg, Scrambled 1 ea

Bacon 2 slices

Skim Milk 8 oz

Regular Coffee 8 oz

Good thing I had a pretty decent breakfast that day, because I was kicked out to the nursing home before lunch. By the time I got settled into my room at the nursing home everyone else was being served dinner. They scared me up a tray. It was a "hamburger" with waffle fries. The meat patty was one of those gray meat things that might have had some actual beef in it before it was processed and frozen to oblivion. The waffle fries were stone cold. Yum. To top it all off, there were onions on these "burgers" and I hadn't had a shower since the accident. I wondered if that pungent smell might have had something to do with me. It took me a while to figure out that it didn't. I was hungry after skipping lunch, but couldn't eat the gray meat.

I kept being lied to and told that I'd have internet access, so I didn't start making notes of the nursing home meals until I finally faced the fact that the "Internet Cafe" is for show as a selling point for relatives. So my notes on the food don't start until the first of December.

12-1-17 "Supper"

3/4 c salad (iceberg, little red cabbage, tiny amt. carrot w good Caesar Dressing)

2/3 c beef and macaroni (stone cold, no onion, in tomato sauce, but very dry)

2 T mashed canned fruit cocktail with a very few whole dices

12-2-17 Breakfast

Powdered scrambled eggs equivalent to one egg

Pork Sausage

1/2 c grits (not quite as lumpy as the hospital's but watery on top of the smaller lumps )

Biscuit (the biscuits here are more normal sized, about 2 oz)

Land O' Lakes Spread packet (still not the butter I use at home, but better than the hospital slime)

Strawberry Jam packet

Orange Juice 5 oz

Coffee 8 oz

Milk 6 oz

Lunch

"BBQ" Chix Thigh (Can't remember why I put BBQ in quotes, but trust me, I had a reason.)

Scalloped potatoes 1/3 c (dry, no onion)

Collard greens (I despise collards, but was so starved for food and especially greens, I ate them.)

Corn Bread

Land o' Lakes

Sweet Tea 8 oz

Water 8 oz

Supper

Boiled Unseasoned Carrots 1/4 c

Tuna Sandwich (mayo only, no onion, dry, not spread to edges, on buttered white bread, grilled. This was horrific and mostly inedible.)

1/3 c canned diced pears, peaches, 2 slivers pineapple

12-3-17 Breakfast

Powdered egg equivalent of 1 egg, scrambled

2 strips bacon

dried, stale inedible bread 1 slice (I think this was supposed to be toast, but it was not brown, only dried out.)

Land o' Lakes spread

Mixed fruit jelly packet

OJ 5 oz

milk 7 oz

coffee 8 oz

Lunch

Ham (not bad, like a couple slices off a spiral sliced) 3 oz

Dressing (on onion or any other seasoning - Stove Top is infinitely better) 1/3 c

Cauliflower, boiled unseasoned 1/2 c (couldn't eat)

Corn Bread

Land o' Lakes

Sheet Cake (dry and crumbly) 1-1/2" x 2" square

Supper

Salad (wilted iceberg, styromates, dressing) 1/4 c

Uncle Ben's rice w/ground beef? in tomato sauce 1-1/4 c (pretty sure name brand rice isn't in the budget, but this was converted rice)

3 sliced canned peaches

Sweet Tea

Water

This meal was soaked by half the water that slopped over the tray and wasn't appealing to begin with. I didn't even taste this meal.

12-4-17 Breakfast

Powdered scrambled egg

2 strips bacon

ramekin lumpy grits

Biscuit

2 pks Land o' Lakes

no jelly

Coffee

Milk

Apple Juice

Lunch

Chix fried steak 3 oz (Sysco?)

Fried Okra breaded 1/2 c (this was actually good)

ramekin black eye peas

Cornbread

Land o' Lakes

Vanilla pudding 1/3 c

Supper

3" cheese steak sandwich (horrible and not enough for a child)

Tater Tots

Styromates 2 slices

sheet cake w/powdered sugar topping

12-5-17 Breakfast

Pancake (This was really, really good! Better than mine.)

Powdered scrambled egg

Pork Sausage

ramekin grits

Land o' Lakes spread

Coffee

Apple juice

Milk

Lunch

3 oz pulled pork (cooked dry, shredded in a food processor and moistened w/ vinegar. Abomination in this BBQ state!)

corn kernels, canned 1/2 c

scalloped potatoes w/a little dried chives (very dry)

cornbread

NO butter substitute! They forget to put things on the tray all the time. Savvy residents horde salt and pepper.

sheet cake, small square topped w/powdered sugar (dry and crumbly, as usual)
sweet tea

water

Supper

Fried popcorn shrimp 3 oz (this wasn't bad but would have been better if it wasn't stone cold)

3 T soupy coleslaw

canned tomatoes with a few small red beans and a few crunchy onions (I think this was supposed to be soup?)

1/3 c vanilla pudding

12-6-17 Breakfast

Powdered scrambled egg

Ham steak 1/8" thick 2 oz

Biscuit (good)

ramekin oatmeal (uneaten)

cranberry juice cocktail

coffee

milk

It was weird how a few really good things appeared occasionally in the seemingly endless litany of slop. The Caesar dressing and the pancake were better than I can make.

I complain, but given how hard it is now to cook the simplest things on a wheelchair, I have to appreciate that at least someone was there to help me when I couldn't help myself. I'm not used to that, and I have found it quite humbling.

The biggest problem with wheelchair cooking is that without both hands free, you are essentially immobile. I can't carry anything, and if even one hand gets dirty, I can't touch the chair with it. That being said, I did manage to make a 7 layer salad and a ground chuck "steak" for dinner tonight. I make scrambled eggs (real ones, YAH!) and have a good breakfast too. It just takes approximately forever. You have to take one item at a time, move it within the range of your arms, wheel toward the next landing pad for the item, but not out of reach of it, and transfer it little by little until you get it to your destination in the kitchen.

I'm thankful this condition is temporary and also that I only lost two pounds in the nursing home. I thought it would be more, but I guess the limited activity contributed to weight conservation in spite of really bad food. I don't have that much weight I can afford to lose, but with my injury, excess weight would make things much, much worse, so two pounds isn't that bad at all.

One thing I observed in the nursing home was that my fellow residents were also frequently appalled by the food, to the point of downright anger at times. They were willing to complain, but when I wanted to talk about ways to improve it, adding sauteed onion to a dish, for example, I completely lost them and was met with glassy stares. It's good to be back among people who are interested in talking about ways to improve the way we cook and eat. Endlessly, I hope.

MetsFan5 · December 18, 2017

Omg. I'm so sorry!!

Your positive attitude no doubt is helping helping your recovery.

Edited December 18, 2017 by MetsFan5 (log)

liuzhou · December 18, 2017

Sorry to hear you have been in the hands of medical fraternity. I wondered where you had got to. Hope things improve for you soon.

The menus you list seem awful to me. The hospital food I recounted during my sojourn with the quacks this summer, poor as it was, was at least made from fresh ingredients. Yours sound like an industrial nightmare.

Glad you got over the salt situation, though. I never managed that.

IowaDee · December 18, 2017

My BIL"s wife is Registered Dietitian at a nearby hospital. She does the majority of the meal

planning. Knowing what and how she cooks at home, I pity the patients. Her standards are

so low that her husband once told us about seeing a mouse sliding atop a stick of butter left

on the counter overnight. He thought is was just too funny. Both of them are so obese they

could be "before" models in a diet ad.

Welcome back and I hope you are able to graduate from the wheelchair soon. I know

you were misssed

SusieQ · December 18, 2017

Thank you for the details of your meals. This list rings true to what I know of nursing homes. I've spent many many hours visiting friends/relatives in various nursing homes, and the food has been universally appalling. Somebody is making an awful lot of money by NOT feeding good nutritious meals, of that I'm convinced. It's a real scandal. And this business of cold sandwiches for dinner is disgusting. And you're right, nursing home patients learn quickly to horde certain items like salt and pepper and crackers. Anyway, it sounds like you are coping well with your situation -- bravo to you -- and I hope your stay in the wheelchair is short.

**Shelby** · December 18, 2017

I, too, wondered where you have been! That's just awful! No more falling!

Your meals--I don't even want to call them meals lol--sounds just so unappealing. I hate to even ask you what they served for Thanksgiving!

gfweb · December 18, 2017

I'm on the board on a retirement community and twice a year we make a point to eat with the residents. The food there is good. The chef is an ex white table cloth guy who tired of the lifestyle. The mobile residents have several options...burger/soda joint, pizza place, fine dining, or cafeteria service. The skilled care options are more limited, but the food is nicely-seasoned and well-prepared.

There are a number of places like this around and quite a few more of the kind that @Thanks for the Crepes describes. When you are researching a long term place, its easy to take the time to find a good one. But when you have an unplanned fracture and are chucked into a rehab facility its hard t o plan. But I would try. Maybe ask to talk to a social worker ASAP after surgery. They often know things. Alternatively go to one with a religious affiliation. This will screen out the most crudely profit-oriented places.

chileheadmike · December 18, 2017

I've missed you and have been hoping you're OK.

Horrific food, I'm sure it's used for motivation to leave.

cakewalk · December 18, 2017

Was thinking the same thing, it's great incentive to get the hell out of there ASAP. Glad you are on the mend, your absence was certainly noted.

Darienne · December 18, 2017

Glad to see you back online again, my dear, and so sorry to read about your accident and hospital stay. The food...you did say it was food, didn't you?...sounds so incredibly awful. Like something you might be served in a prisoner of war camp.

I sat on a regional mental health hospital board for several years and once the 'good' times had passed, the board ate hospital food also. I am delighted to say that it was just fine. Must have been some kind of mistake......lol....

Can you not arrange for some interim help to come in once a day? Here in Ontario, I think you would be entitled to that.

**ElsieD** · December 18, 2017

Welcome back! I too had been wondering where you were. The food sounds ghastly. Powdered eggs? I wonder why they use those. When my dad was in a nursing home I was there at meal times a few times (I lived 350 miles away) and the food was real food, served at the appropriate temperatures. It was government run so I don't know if that made a difference.

Nancy in Pátzcuaro · December 18, 2017

You know, I was unable to finish reading the whole list of your meals--my mind just couldn't stand it. My late parents were in assisted living (first) and then a nursing home, and they routinely complained about the food. Now, I have to say that dietary restrictions (low salt, low fat) make cooking edible food a bit challenging, but surely the use of herbs and other flavor-boosters could be incorporated into the food to make it more appealing. But the kitchen has to care about it and have the training to implement better techniques and ideally decent quality ingredients.

My husband had back surgery a year ago June (successfully, thank goodness), at a major hospital in Morelia, and I have to say the food was actually edible and arrived at the proper temperature. Before each meal a young woman with a clipboard, dressed in an immaculate white coat, asked him what he wanted to eat. Breakfast choices included chilequiles, huevos mexicanos (eggs with tomato, chile and onion, named "mexicanos" due to the 3 colors of the Mexican flag), pancakes, french toast. Other meals he was offered a choice of chicken, pork , beef or fish, each with the appropriate accompanying side dishes, like steamed fresh vegetables, rice, etc. And tortillas, of course. It's not a meal without tortillas.

Now this is a major institution with many beds, so it can be done on a large scale. I was completely astonished that the fish was cooked properly--i.e., not dried out or overcooked--even though it was tilapia. He was only there for 2 nights, so we didn't have a chance to experience their complete repertory. Included in his room cost was one meal a day for me as well, so I can vouch for the food.

I'm very sorry, Thanks for the Crepes, that your traumatic experience--falling, surgery, recovery and rehab--was not improved by decent food. Was it possible for someone to sneak in something edible? How can these institutions provide better food? I think it starts with the administration, but someone has to make the commitment to do something about the dreadful food and then hire the right people to implement it. Possibly it would cost too much, which is always the excuse.

Glad you're out of their clutches, even though cooking for yourself is difficult. How much longer in the wheelchair?

Nancy in Pátzcuaro

kayb · December 18, 2017

I'm sorry to hear you've been having to go through this; had wondered where you were. Doubly sorry that you were nearly starved to death; institutional food is just generally SO horrible. You would think the few places who do it right could make a mint teaching their tricks to the many who don't. And I just don't think there's any excuse for serving patients cold meals that aren't supposed to be cold. Talk about insult to injury!

How will you handle your shopping now? Obviously it will be a while before you can manage the hike you used to make to the store.

**David Ross** · December 18, 2017

I'm glad you're recovering and hope each day gets better. Thank you for listing the menus of what you had each day, it echoes pretty much what I just experienced in terms of food. I thought 4 days in the hospital in May followed by 3 weeks in a rehab facility would be enough for the year, but in November I shattered my upper right arm bone that required surgery and a plate and screws. Got released but ended back in the hospital three days later due to pneumonia and respiratory failure. A total of another 12 days in the hospital. The food at this hospital was fair, sometimes good. They put me on a very low sodium diet thinking I had some heart issues, which two of my Doctor's have since dispelled. That packet of Mrs. Dash seasoning was sort of nasty. The packaged sherbet was good, which isn't saying much since it was made by an outside vendor. The eggs for breakfast were actually good, not dry or pasty at all. The cheese sandwich at lunch was gummy, but the blt was good. Of course they said I couldn't have bacon due to the salt content, so I had a tomato and lettuce sandwich! Two entrees at dinner were pretty good, the cheeseburger, served like in an old fashioned diner with the lettuce and tomato on the side. The grilled salmon served with orzo was delicious. After almost two weeks I think I had pretty much gone through the menu.

Darienne · December 18, 2017

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

Welcome back! I too had been wondering where you were. The food sounds ghastly. Powdered eggs? I wonder why they use those. When my dad was in a nursing home I was there at meal times a few times (I lived 350 miles away) and the food was real food, served at the appropriate temperatures. It was government run so I don't know if that made a difference.

My Mother also. Perhaps there is something to be said for Ontario medical care...not much...but something....

I will add that many decades ago I had our last offspring in the Jewish General in Montreal. The food was excellent and was my first introduction to Cheese Bagels...oh yummm

Edited December 18, 2017 by Darienne (log)

BeeZee · December 18, 2017

Question, and I hope to not have to deal with it, but how does the hospital accommodate dietary preferences of the patient. For example, if I smell eggs it makes me want to vomit. I remember when my Mom had cardiac surgery they gave her a menu to choose from for her meals, but I have a feeling that isn’t the case in most facilities? I know that when my in-laws were in a nursing home the food looked atrocious. My MIL kept some snacks in her room.

blue_dolphin · December 18, 2017

30 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

Question, and I hope to not have to deal with it, but how does the hospital accommodate dietary preferences of the patient. For example, if I smell eggs it makes me want to vomit. I remember when my Mom had cardiac surgery they gave her a menu to choose from for her meals, but I have a feeling that isn’t the case in most facilities? I know that when my in-laws were in a nursing home the food looked atrocious. My MIL kept some snacks in her room.

I think it's highly variable, depending on the facility. What I've seen most commonly is a daily menu sheet with various choices to be checked off for the next day's meals.

Some hospitals (for example, MD Anderson in Houston and several where I've visited friends here in So Cal) have gone to a room service model. Patients have a standing menu and can call in their order any time. Patients who are on special diets get a custom menu to select from. The food is to be delivered within 30 min. At MD Anderson, the staff delivering the meals are actually dressed like restaurant waiters - black pants, white dress shirts and black bow ties. I thought the food was pretty good, although if someone is hospitalized for an extended period, I can see that boredom would set in.

Edited to add link: Room Service offers our cancer patients culinary creations and care

Edited December 18, 2017 by blue_dolphin (log)

**David Ross** · December 18, 2017

Yeah, my experience in two different hospitals in Spokane this year were both the room service model. The menus at both had a fair number of items. At both hospitals the food services staff was wonderful, calling me daily if I had forgotten to order a meal and calling ahead for placing orders for meals throughout the day. One drawback was dietary restrictions. I'm not on any dietary restrictions at home nor does my primary care order anything, but in the hospital they watched the chart closely and that info was then scribed into diet orders. So if I called up and wanted soup, they'd say no due to too much salt in the soup for example. In general though the food was so-so but the service excellent. The food in both hospitals was actually better than the food at the rehab facility.

FauxPas · December 18, 2017

@Thanks for the Crepes, so sorry to hear about your fall. I hope you will be free of the chair soon! And you really should have some in-home support until then. I'm also wondering how you will do shopping.

@David Ross, I am also very sorry to hear about your further injury and illness. I hope you are recovering well. How is your arm?

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