Pork chops with ginger sauce and baked fish with crumb topping were among the options Ronald Rubin, 74, could choose from on Friday’s dinner menu. Forty-five minutes after he placed his order, a meal came garnished with a flower, and a hot towel rested on the side of his hospital tray.
After getting the idea from other hospitals, Evanston Hospital, 2650 Ridge Ave., decided to test out a new meal delivery system five months ago. Rubin is a patient on one of three floors at Evanston Hospital that offer patients the option to call orders to the office in charge of meeting patients’ dietary needs.
For now the program is limited to three regions of the hospital. Hosts on the pediatric floor and wings of the second and fifth floors are also available to take patient orders. Traditional deliveries occur during three time blocks.
“I can order for anytime I want,” said Rubin, of Deerfield, Ill. “If I say I want it at quarter after twelve, they bring it at quarter after twelve, believe it or not.”
The kitchen takes calls from 6:45 a.m. to 8 p.m. at no additional cost to patients. If someone misses a meal, the host visits as a reminder.
“In the diet office we have a system that if a patient has not ordered by ‘X’ time, we make sure that no one is missed in the process,” said Assistant Director of Patient Services Rebecca Karchmar.
Hostess Cleo Turner, 40, has worked with the program since its inception. She said the program has had its bumps, but generally it is preferred to the original delivery system.
“Everyone has to pull together as a shift,” said Cleo. “If they don’t have the right people on the phones, it can get mixed up. When they have the right people, it runs nicely.”
Evanston Hospital is the only branch of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare to offer the new system. Mike Hoing, director of food and nutrition, said the delivery system is being phased in on an experimental basis. He said there is a possibility for it to be available to all patients.
Patient Anna Carroll said the rest of the hospital could benefit from the expansion. In an environment where people do not have control over their daily lives, the Evanston resident said patients appreciate the ability to choose.
“You certainly don’t have a say with what’s going on in (the operating room), but you have control with this,” Carroll, 58, said. “This does exercise your mind to order and makes you feel more involved.”
Hoing said there are people who look at this as a radical change. He was unable to name specific cases, but he said the department takes opportunities for improvement on a day-to-day basis.
“There probably are some patients who are used to things the way they were,” Hoing said. “The Food Service Department has an idea that (the program) would improve their experience here at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.”
In the meantime, the new system has a fan in Rubin.
“I tend to be a complainer, but I really have no complaints,” Rubin said.
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