Food Choice Central to Care at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital

Food is central to our lives. We eat multiple times a day, ordering from restaurants and delivery services and picking up items at grocery stores. We dine to nourish our bodies and as part of celebrations. Cycles of consumption continue even when we’re sick or hospitalized, including at the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Ami Patel has served as UCSF’s Director of Nutrition Services for more than 20 years. Along with a team of more than one-dozen dietitians she finds ways to entice children – from preemies to young adults – to get proper nutrition while they’re hospitalized. 

Two USCF tenets are to provide child-patients with “choice of time, and choice of food.” Giving a patient the freedom to decide when to eat—between the hours of 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.—as well as autonomy to determine what’s appealing to them. 

“Hospitalized children need healing and growth”, said Patel. “They’re all different. Young kids in particular like pancakes, fries, fruit, ice cream, breakfast sandwiches. These are the things that are requested the most.” Another popular item is homemade shakes, customizable with “berries, chocolate, avocados or milk”. 

Roughly two-thirds of patients rely on a “normal” diet without any allergies or restrictions. For the other third, UCSF Children’s Hospital offers a customized digital menu that accounts for incompatible ingredients. Food that won’t work for the patient isn’t an option. Patients who have more restrictions than usual are offered feedback choices when they place their food and beverage in their “cart”. A physician may limit carbohydrates, sodium or saturated fat; a warning might pop up if the patient has exceeded the healthy amount for their healing process. 

“For all therapeutic diets, the physician writes the diet order, and the dietitians help manage the restrictions in the food choices for the patient. This happens at all of our campuses,” said Patel.  “We have technology that displays the patient’s menu in their room televisions that accounts for their allergies and diet restrictions if they have any or the patient can call the rooms service call center for our diet clerks to make their meal choices.  The process is the same regardless of their diet order.”

Special accommodation are occasionally made. If a child is comforted by a specific brand of cookie or cracker a staff member might purchase it. According to Patel, a sufficiently wide array of food is offered so that in most cases a selection can be made that consoles and nourishes a patient’s palate. For example, Congee – a savory porridge made of rice – a comfort food in a number of cultures is available. There are Latin flavors, pastas, pizza and Asian options with rice and a protein selection.

Most of the time patients are allowed to eat food brought in by visitors. Refrigerators are available to store food. Patients are encouraged to eat with their guests at a number of lounges. Cafes are also open to encourage group eating in a familiar table setting.