HOSPITAL CATERING

HOSPITAL CATERING

The hospital, today, is one of the most complex and fascinating organizations that mobilizes 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 towards the speedy recovery of the patient. – A part 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 change in consistency as in fluid and soft diets

–      
To increase or decrease energy levels


–      To include greater or lesser amounts of one or more nutrients egg, high protein, low sodium etc.

–      To increase or decrease fiber content of diet


–      To provide foods bland in flavor

–      To include or exclude specific foods as’ in allergic conditions.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF DIETS

Different Dites that are offered to different patients are as follows:

1. Regular/Normal diet
2. soft diet
3. bland diet
4. high or low fiber diet 
5. high or low protein diet
6. high-or low fat diet
7. sodium-restricted diet. 

• Menus are generally planned and then formulated into ‘Diet List'. 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 IN HOSPITALS

The hospital kitchen is planned with much consideration. The kitchen has a receiving area, proper storage facilities, pre-preparation room, 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 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 storeroom in relation with 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 equipments must be considered when planning the kitchen.

Equipments commonly found in hospital, kitchens:

1.Gas ranges

2.Refrigerators

3.Deep Freezers-

4.Walk-in Cooler

5.Grinding stone

6.Masala grinder

7.Brat Pan

8.Dough mixer

9.Food processor

10.Rice boiler

11.Steamer

12.Chapatti tava and puffer

13.Deep fat fryer

14.Pressure Cooker

15.Ovens

16.Salamander

17.Weighing scale

18.Toaster

19.Bain Marie

FOOD SERVICE

Food service for patients may be may be any one of the two general patterns – Decentralized or centralized.

–      In decentralized, 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 centralized 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 and Pvt. 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
 and Two slices of bread


Lunch & Dinner:
                     Rice
, Chapatti, 
Dal, 
One vegetable.


Menu in 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 and 
Fruits


E/Tea:                                                  Milk, Biscuits

Dinner:                                                
Same as Lunch