Patient menu changes

Dear Patients,
We are making some changes to nutrition services because we are anticipating a high number of patients in the next few weeks. Starting April 1, we will be going to one standard menu and meals will be automatically selected for you respecting your dietary requirements.
Thank you for your understanding.

To respond to COVID-19 challenges, patient meal services are changing. The Nutrition Services team has put in place a phased planning approach to be as efficient as possible with staffing and resources while accommodating an expected increase in patient volumes and resource requirements.

Effective April 1, 2020:

• All patients meals will be non-selective, using a set menu that changes every day.
• This set menu will be 7-days and align all of HHS on the same rotation.
• This will increase the storage space in kitchen for potential increase in volumes.

“Our system will automatically select items from the fixed daily menu that are appropriate for the patient’s diet,” says Nancy Bertin, Compass Senior General Manager. “We have a variety of diets including diabetic, heart healthy, texture-modified and more. We will still meet all dietary compliances for patient needs.”

If a patient is already admitted and has made choices for meals, the nutrition management system remembers preferences such as tea over coffee, no fish etc., and will use these preferences to select from the fixed menu.

Although patients are not directly making menu choices, the information systems in place will ensure that their meals are either items that they have previously ordered or align with any personal preferences captured. Patients are encouraged to ask staff to message Nutrition Services with feedback about foods that they do not like. If allergies/preferences do not permit the main entrée, they will be provided with the next option which might be the sandwich of the day, for example.

“Patients are still able to provide verbal feedback to the care team in regards to customization,” says Bertin. “This will ensure we still provide options to our patients as much as possible.”

In the future, situation changes may trigger the following strategies as needed:

• Cold meal service in some areas
• Continental breakfast & cold lunch, with hot beverages served at each meal and hot dinner