by
Carol Ko, Staff Writer | January 27, 2014
From the January 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Of course, this isn’t to say that all amenities are unrelated to patient health. Some pioneering research around evidence-based architecture and design in health care is finding correlations between certain aesthetic and environmental features such as open windows, music, flooring and furniture arrangement and a boost in clinical outcomes.
Certain health professionals have been won over by the idea of selling a holistic patient experience rather than a patient outcome. “When this first started as a clinician, I thought, wow we’re pulling dollars away from the clinical. But patients actually heal better if they have a better sense of wellbeing so the other things that go into it — the way we treat a patient, talk to a patient — really does influence their clinical outcome. The culinary experience and hospitality work together to improve the whole experience of the hospital,” says Laura Watson, President of the Association for Healthcare Foodservice and System Director, Patient Support Services at Intermountain Healthcare.
Yet if such design and hospitality choices actually make a real impact on patient care, it’s all the more reason to tie them back to hard clinical evidence to ensure that the public is paying for measurable outcomes, not frivolous perks.
In the midst of ongoing national scrutiny and discussion around bloated health care spending, Romley points out, it’s important to be able to justify exactly what we’re getting for our money.
Health nut
As the debate around amenities carries on, one thing seems to be above debate: nutritious, delicious food represents both a perk and a measurable health outcome.
In particular, room service models seem to be catching on with hospitals both because it allows for a more flexible eating schedule for the patient while reducing food waste. “In the old model when we just sent a tray that was a full balanced meal — what if you only felt like having soup? The rest of the food was wasted. If you’ve only ordered soup now, you can order in a couple of hours if you’re hungry again,” says Watson.
Experts all agree that health and wellness continues to be a focus for hospital food services. “Really, there is an expectation that we’re contributing to keeping people out of the hospital,” Watson adds.
Of course, this effort isn’t without its challenges — people don’t necessarily want what’s good for them. To try to make healthy eating more accessible to patients, at Intermountain, executive chefs have teamed up to create LiVe Well Plates, or meals developed with specific criteria including a 600 calorie, 30 percent fat limit.
