Hospital food: Gross or…absolutely delicious?

Listen 00:48:45

Guests: Stuart Fine, Ryan Conklin, Stacia Clinton

A congealed cup of mashed potatoes, a rubbery bologna sandwich or a jiggling mass of room-temperature orange jello. Those were once the horrors that made up hospital food. But these days, the meals served to patients post-surgery and child birth are getting better. Host Mary Cummings-Jordan talks about how food is prepared and served, and the value of heirloom tomato tastings for patients with RYAN CONKLIN, the Executive Chef for UNC REX Healthcare in Raleigh, North Carolina, who’s developed a national reputation for reinventing hospital cuisine. And we’ll learn how offerings have changed to reflect changing tastes and to promote patient health with STACIA CLINTON, national director of Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Health Care initiative. And for a peek into the cost of hospital food and the difference between food quality the perception of food quality, we’ll talk with former hospital CEO STUART FINE, who’s now an Associate Professor of Healthcare Management programs for the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

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