How hospitals are rethinking food service as budgets tighten

Hospital food is notoriously known for being basic, bland, and usually brown—whether it’s served in patient rooms or cafeterias. But that’s starting to change.

With outpatient procedures increasingly driving health system revenues, more hospital executives are revamping their food service offerings and management systems as they look to improve the patient experience—and woo people away from competitors—all while bolstering their own coffers.

“The C-suite [executives] know that patients have choice in what healthcare system they’re going to choose,” Lisa Shoopman, associate VP for food and nutrition at Kentucky-based Baptist Health, told Healthcare Brew. “They’re seeing more of the importance of what food service does bring to the table. Then, as dollars are getting tighter in healthcare, the C-suite is asking us to get creative and look for different solutions.”

The US healthcare food services market is expected to see sustained growth in the coming decade. A 2022 MarketsandMarkets report estimated the market could be worth $22.8 billion by 2026—a significant increase from $13.2 billion in 2021—driven, in part, by increased focus on improving the patient experience and custom food options. Meanwhile, market research firm Fact.MR estimated that the hospital food services market would hit $39.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, and could potentially reach $81.9 billion come 2033.

In 2018, Baptist leaders decided to overhaul and standardize food service operations across eight of its hospitals, Shoopman said. The health system invested in new technology from CBORD—which is part of Roper Technologies and provides retail, commerce, and food service software—to streamline point-of-sale processes, menu planning, and patient ordering options, among other things. Shoopman did not say how much the system spent on CBORD’s software, parts of which it is still implementing.

CBORD’s software—just one of several options available on the market—allows health systems to centralize ordering across multiple hospitals in a health system, reduce food waste through inventory tracking and consumption analytics, and lower the number of required food service staff, Lorena Harris, CBORD’s marketing VP, told Healthcare Brew.

The costs for CBORD’s technology offerings vary depending on a system’s size and the services they need, Harris said. For large health systems that buy everything, the software can run close to $1 million. More than 2,000 acute care hospitals and 3,000 senior living communities use CBORD’s food and nutrition management software.

“Our systems actually automate ordering, and coordinate with suppliers so that they order just exactly the right amount of food for the recipes they intend to prepare for exactly the right amount of patients and staff,” Harris said, adding that patient and retail food service “can be a big part” of a facility’s revenue.

The software has helped Baptist control costs and reduce redundancies—the system now has one team maintaining the food service database instead of having staff at each facility—as well as better protect patients from being unintentionally exposed to food-related allergies or dietary restrictions, Shoopman said. And the health system has taken those efforts a step further, rolling out plant-based menu options (like ratatouille and Beyond burgers) and mobile room service-style ordering capabilities in some of its facilities.

“People love to eat, wherever they are—even if they’re recuperating,” Harris said. “You would think the quality of care would be the most important factor, but meal service is impacting their decisions.”