Let’s Eat! Program helps Reading Hospital patients

Reading Hospital has become an early adopter of a new technology platform that aims to improve the food service it provides to patients on several fronts.

In late April, the hospital introduced the Let’s Eat! Program, in which hospital patients will order meals online, through MyChart Patient Bedside. The process will be similar to ordering food from restaurant websites.

Patients and their families will be able to see pictures of the specific foods they’re ordering, and the system will walk them through any dietary restrictions if they are on a special diet. The menu will also have a counter on the screen that automatically tracks carbs, fats, sodium and fluids.

Rachael Wehn, director of nutrition services for Reading Hospital explained that there are many advantages to the new system, over the old system where patients ordered off of printed menus through the call center.

First is the ease of use.

“This adds another layer to let them order their food when they think about it,” Wehn said.

The pictures are helpful so patients can get a better idea about what the food looks like, which can be helpful for patients who are having trouble reading because of their condition.

Because it’s web-based, family members can also order for the patient remotely from home or work.

There’s also a safety protocol built into the system.

“It only shows foods that meet their dietary restrictions,” Wehn said.

That means it won’t show foods that contain gluten to someone with Celiacs Disease, or items with dairy for someone who is lactose intolerant.

That helps make sure that patients aren’t getting meals that they didn’t realize contained ingredients they can’t eat.

“It helps them feel in control without having to worry ‘if I can have this,’

Wehr said. “Patients often feel like they don’t have a lot of choice. This makes them feel more in control.

But, she said, it’s also helpful for those without food allergies, but still need to keep an eye on things like fats, sugars and sodium.

The program will show the user how much of items that they should be limiting are in their food order and will stop them from ordering at a level that may be unhealthy to them.

“It will yell at you if you try to order too much of something like carbohydrates,” Wehr said.

She gave the example of someone who should be restricting their sugar intake ordering too much fruit juice. The system will stop them from ordering more sugary drinks that exceed their recommended intake.

That can also be educational for the patient.

Melanie Stutzman-Ricci, vice president of support services for Tower Health, helped with the beta testing of the system and said she learned a lot about her eating habits, which she thought were healthy.

“I looked at how many grams of fat are in French fries, and I didn’t realize that,” Stutzman-Ricci said. Now I’m on a diet because I realized I was eating way too much sugar and way too many carbs.”

In that way, she said the new menu serves as an educational tool for patients to learn more about what is in the food that they’re eating – showing them healthier eating habits that they can take with them after they leave the hospital.

The new program is also helpful for kitchen staff, because they can make real time changes to the menu – which they couldn’t do with a paper menu.

If they run out of an item, or ingredients are changed they can update the menu to reflect what is available.

Currently, Reading Hospital is the only hospital within Tower Health using the Let’s Eat! Program, and in fact is one of only a small number of hospitals to adopt the technology.

But, Wehr said she’s seen a great deal of interest from other hospitals and health networks, who are interested in seeing if the program would benefit their patients and she expects more hospitals will be adopting this or similar programs in the future.

She said there are also many more ways that she thinks Reading Hospital can utilize the program and she looks forward to finding new ways to help improve dining and diet for patients.