Hospital food becomes a hot topic - for all the right reasons

Mark Holgate - Managing Director of KKS Healthcare and Education, a division of Compass Group SA.

Compass Group SA, which provides the catering service to a number of hospitals throughout South Africa, is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to provide food that is fresh, hot, safe, nutritious and palatable.

The group's latest innovation is Serve Plus, a patient dining service designed specifically to support patient's health, quality of life and the recovery process during their hospitalisation.

“The majority of patient-feeding systems are designed more around the hospital and the way it works than around the needs of patients," says Mark Holgate, MD: KKS Healthcare and Education. "The biggest issue has always been the logistics of getting the food from a central kitchen and delivering it hot to a ward that might be five floors up.

"Additionally, activity in the ward may prevent the food being served straight away, so the first patient served gets a hot meal – but not the last."

The company's new heat on demand system, a portable food heater that allows food to retain its heat for up to 45 minutes, ensuring improved food quality, longer holding time and more consistent heating, is claimed to ensure every patient, first to last, can enjoy a hot meal.

"The system addresses the transit issue of ensuring that the food is delivered hot to the patient's bedside,” says Holgate.

Specially trained hospitality hostesses constantly interact with patients to ensure that they have a variety of food choices and this takes some of the burden off nursing staff.

In terms of choice, the new service also ensures that the average patient has a variety of extensive and nutritious meal options from which he or she can choose, specifically compiled by a dietician.