Hospital Catering

Hospital Catering

The hospital, today, is one of the most complex and fascinating organizations that mobilize the skills and efforts of a number of widely divergent groups of professionals, semi-professionals and non-professionals to provide a highly personalized service to individual patients.

Today, the dietary department ranks as one of the major departments of the hospital, headed by a specialist, the dietitian. “The object of catering in hospitals is to assist the nursing staff to get the patient better as soon as possible. To do this, it is necessary to provide good quality food, to cook it with the minimum loss of nutrients and to provide it to the patients in an appetizing manner. If the food supplied to the patient is good plentiful, appetizing and nutritionally correct, then it plays a very great part in the speedy recovery of the patient. – Apart possibly as equally important as careful nursing and skilled medical attention. Diet therapy is the use of food; as an agent in effecting recovery from illness. It ‘is concerned with the nutrition of all patients-those receiving normal diets as well as those for whom modified diets have been prescribed.

The normal diet may be modified :

• To provide a change in the consistency as in fluid and soft diets
• To increase or decrease energy levels
• To include greater or lesser amounts of one or more nutrients like egg, high protein, low sodium etc.
• To increase or decrease the fibre content of the diet
• To provide foods bland in flavour
• To include or exclude specific foods as’ in allergic conditions.

Different Types of Diets

Regular/Normal diet, soft diet, bland diet, high or low fibre diet high or low protein diet, high or low, fat diet, sodium-restricted diet. Menus are generally planned and then formulated into ‘Diet List1. These are made available to all attending medical staff.

General diets are those which are normally followed in the general wards. Menus are made four days to a week in advance. The dietitian plans menus for each separate meal, specifying the foods to be served in a suitable form. The nursing supervisors will keep the dietary department advised as to the number of patients of each type of diet. Special diets are prepared for those who ate not medically capable or permitted to eat certain food items which are generally used in the making of the menu. These diets are prepared under the supervision of the dietitian or the food service supervisor

Kitchen

The hospital kitchen is planned with much consideration. The kitchen has a receiving area, proper storage facilities, a pre-preparation room, a preparation area or the main/hot kitchen. The hospital kitchen may also have a cold kitchen.

The kitchen may also be divided into various sections such as the pre-preparation area, preparation area, grain cleaning area, tea and coffee section, roti preparation, service and trolley loading area, washing area, stores. The pre-preparation and preparation area may be further divided into separate Indian and Continental areas. The location of the storeroom in relation to the kitchen is very important to avoid contamination of the food material and also to prevent pilferage. Separate storage areas for perishable and non-perishable items are desired. The workflow, sufficient spacing between work tables/platforms and the presence of various equipment must be considered when planning the kitchen.

Equipment commonly found in hospital, kitchens

• Gas ranges
• Steamer
• Refrigerators
• Chapatti tava and puffer
• Deep Freezers
• Deep fat fryer
• Walk-in Cooler
• Pressure Cooker
• Grinding stone
• Ovens
• Masala grinder
• Salamander
• Brat Pan
• Weighing scale
• Dough mixer
• Toaster
• Food processor
• Bain Marie
• Rice boiler

Service

Foodservice for patients may be any one of the two general patterns –

• In decentralised, service all food is prepared in a central kitchen and sent to the floors, where it is portioned out on trays and served to patients
• In centralised service, food is prepared in a central kitchen, trays are set up and food is portioned out in a central serving unit and trays are sent to all patients’ floor.

Menus in Govt. Hospitals

In Govt. hospitals where only a small percentage of the patients can afford to pay for special service, it is unwise to burden either the individual patient or the hospital with unnecessary expenses. The general menu is:

• Breakfast:
  • One cup of milk
  • Two slices of bread
• Lunch & Dinner:
  • Rice
  • Chapatti
  • Dal
  • One vegetable.

Menu in a private hospital (First class):

• Breakfast:
  • Two slices of bread
  • One bowl of cereal
  • Egg (any style)
  • Vegetarian snack
• Mid-morning:
  • Fresh fruit juice
• Lunch:
  • Soup
  • Chapatti
  • Rice
  • Vegetable (choice of two vegs)
  • Pulse
  • Curd
  • Fruits
• Evening Tea:
  • Milk
  • Biscuits
• Dinner:
  • Soup
  • Chapatti
  • Rice
  • Vegetable (choice of two vegs)
  • Pulse
  • Curd
  • Fruits