DIET CAN HAMPER OR ENHANCE PATIENT RECOVERY

Gail Groenewald,
RoyalMnandi Operations Executive - Healthcare

“It is vital that patients, doctors and dieticians work together as a team to ensure that diet facilitates recovery”

Diet plays a pivotal role in patient recovery and service providers to the healthcare industry play an important role in ensuring that nutrition promotes, and does not hinder, rehabilitation.

People confined to hospital very often have a poor appetite and may have altered tastes due to medication. Patients therefore tend to ‘eat with their eyes’ and first impressions impact significantly on the patient’s intake of food.
It is therefore essential that caterers source quality ingredients, devise tasty and nutritious menus, plate meals in appealing ways, keep food at consistent and desirable temperatures and provide friendly efficient service when taking orders, serving and clearing after meals.  

Besides appealing to the senses, it is also important to ensure that healthy cooking practices using nutrient-saving techniques and methods are adhered to. For example it is preferable to steam, bake or grill vegetables rather than to boil or deep fry them.  Scrupulous hygiene is also essential in order to avoid food contamination.

Food not only needs to look, taste and smell attractive but must also contain essential nutrients to promote rehabilitation. While all food contains vitamins and minerals which provide nutrients to the body, the diet must be balanced with a low glycaemic index and the correct essential omega fatty acids found in fish, fish oil, walnuts and flaxseed, as well as the necessary vitamins and nutrients found in fruit and vegetables.  This is important for optimal wellness as humans cannot manufacture them nor can the body convert the one into the other.

Catering staff must be comprehensively trained to ensure that the food presented to the patient complies with stringent quality controls from purchasing and preparation, to plating and serving.

Roleplayers involved in preparation of hospital food typically include kitchen staff (a catering manager, chef and cooks) as well as ward ‘hostesses’ whose role is to take meal orders and serve food to the patient according to his/her dietary requirements. While there is no recognised specialised qualification for hospital ward hostesses, the recruitment and pre-assessments of hospital catering staff is crucial as they need to be at a level where they understand the patient’s medical condition and are able to communicate the importance of the dietary requirements to their patients when taking menus.  It is for this reason that prior experience in the food industry as well as a minimum grade 12 education is essential.  They must be trained through an accredited and recognized training academy, specifically on special diets and know exactly what is required for each of the numerous dietary requirements encountered in a hospital environment.

It is vital that patients, doctors and dieticians work together as a team to ensure that diet facilitates recovery. Properly qualified suppliers should provide dieticians* who prescribe diets based on the patient’s condition and taste preferences, the doctor’s prescription and any religious and cultural restrictions.
Patients must furthermore be advised what foods they should avoid as unsuitable food could slow down their recovery process. Care should be taken to ensure that food brought in by visitors does not adversely affect recovery. For example …Sweet desserts or chocolate being brought for a diabetic patient, or fried chicken brought for a patient with high cholesterol.

Once the doctor* prescribes the diet for a patient, the dietician will draw up the diet plan and menu to suit the prescription for the patient.  The nurse will then communicate this to the kitchen, and the responsibility lies with the kitchen’s catering staff to ensure that patients are presented with their complete prescribed diet daily.

Overall responsibility for quality control lies with the Head of the Catering staff in the hospital kitchen. This person is preferably qualified in Food Service Management and /or is an Executive Chef.

In South Africa there are various bodies regulating and ensuring health and food safety standards for hospital food catering, such as ISO, COHSASA and HACCP.  Catering companies in hospitals should ensure that regular quarterly independent audits are conducted at their hospital kitchens in order to ensure that these food safety standards are met and upheld.