LOCAL

Topeka hospitals to look at healthy food options

Statewide initiative led by Kansas Hospital Association

Megan Hart

Both Topeka hospital systems will assess their food service and look for ways to encourage healthier choices through a partnership with the Kansas Hospital Association.

Cindy Samuelson, vice president of member services and public relations for the Kansas Hospital Association, said 51 hospitals statewide, including St. Francis Health and Stormont-Vail HealthCare, had pledged to examine their food and beverage practices and make changes to promote healthier choices by staff and visitors. Some already have policies to encourage healthy eating, but their approaches and the amount of emphasis on it vary, she said.

“They’re all just in different places,” she said.

KHA recommends that hospitals offer more fruits and vegetables, label foods with nutrition facts, eliminate fried foods and offer healthier choices in vending machines. The same solutions may not work for every hospital, Samuelson said, because a children’s hospital, for example, may have to contend with picky eaters.

“You have to put items in front of them that they like and will eat,” she said.

Emily Ramsdell, director of food and nutrition for St. Francis, said they already have a wellness program for the system that includes cooking demonstrations using unusual produce, nutrition labeling on cafeteria items and loyalty cards employees can get a punch in for choosing healthy items, with a prize drawing from the full cards at the end of the month.

Ramsdell said they track food choices in the cafeteria, and about 51 percent of items employees and visitors purchase meet Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics health standards, up from 38 percent when they started tracking in 2011. They also have added more fruit items to the dessert options and included vegetables in unexpected places, such as using zucchini to encrust the tilapia.

“I think we’re doing a pretty good job of converting our menu,” she said.

Ramsdell said their vending options could be improved, and removing the fryer is one possible option. Switching to serving only healthy foods is an option, she said, but it isn’t clear if employees and visitors would want that.

“We obviously wouldn’t want the opposite to happen, where people would end up brown-bagging cookies and Oreos,” she said. “We want people to understand that it’s OK to indulge from time to time.”

The ultimate goal is not only to get people to make healthier choices at work, but to introduce them to options they will use at home, Ramsdell said.

“It’s 100 percent education,” she said. “We really want to impact how they act out in the community.”

Nancy Burkhardt, spokeswoman for Stormont-Vail, said the hospital already offers a salad bar and healthy sandwich options each day, as well as posting nutrition facts for the different dishes in its cafeteria. She said they have plans to meet with KHA representatives next week to discuss what strategies would work best for them and how to implement them.

“We’re just getting started,” she said. “We want to look at the things that will have the most impact.”

Other participants are Coffey County Hospital, Burlington; Community HealthCare System Inc., Onaga; Holton Community Hospital, Holton; Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence; Mercy Regional Health Center, Manhattan; and Wamego Health Center, Wamego.