Ever notice how certain organizations or industries have a reputation for bad services?
DMV – slow lines and bad attitudes
Telemarketing – dinnerous interruptus
Car dealerships – pushy and money-hungry
Paparazzi – obnoxious, invasive, and ruthless
And…
Hospital food – tasteless and unhealthy
Knowing that most of the world sees these poor services in a negative light, you’d think that they would work hard to change their image. Well, in fact, some have. The DMV is much less stressful than 20 years ago. And some car dealers are much less pushy. But unfortunately, hospital food is still pretty bad.
Why is that? Especially when good nutritious food is important for healthfulness. I’m a cook and it’s just not that hard to whip up healthy food that tastes good. Maybe it’s the volume of meals. But then again, high schools, universities, and sports arenas have to cook for large crowds and the food is pretty good. So, it can be done.
Recently, I read an article describing how many hospitals are moving towards healthy and better tasting meals. It’s part of a movement sponsored by the Health Care Without Harm Coalition and it’s called the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge. I think this is wonderful concept but I’m curious why it hasn’t happened before now.
The philosophy behind Do it Well, Make it Fun focuses on seeking excellence while making the process fun. With hospital food, that simply means this: make the food healthy and good tasting. Unfortunately, just like the hospital food services, many of us fall into bad habits and patterns and we find it hard to break the bonds of tradition or mediocrity. However, if we can see that change is possible without a huge shift in thinking, we can find much more success in the work that we do.
Good hospital food is only two steps away. Cook it well. Make it tasty.
On the pediatric ward they put applesauce in everything. Still hospital food is preferable to airline food or my food. I would discipline the children differently. They would say,”Mommy,mommy,I’ll be good,please don’t cook dinner!” Dinner at my house was a chicken wing and a prayer. Things were so bad in my kitchen Ralph Nader came over and declared my Cuisinart unsafe at any speed.
That’s awesome!