Food Allergies and Room Service: Increasing Patient Safety

Michalak, Sandra; Hall, Patricia; Feuling, Mary Beth

doi:10.1016/j.jada.2010.06.262

Cited by 1 publication

(6 citation statements)

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“…Hospital foodservice is considered one of the most complicated of the hospitality sectors [ 7 , 34 ]. Any miscommunication in this arena can result in accidental allergen exposure, as was previously reported [ 10 ]. This has heightened the realization that staff members from diverse sectors should be involved in maintaining food allergy safety, in contrast to approaches of the past that focused exclusively on the hospital kitchen.…”

Section: The Projectmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Protocols that have been made publicly available do not always address strategies to ensure proper communication, food preparation, labeling, and delivery of the hospital menu in the context of food allergy safety [ 9 – 11 ]. A case in point was apparent in the description of an initiative to increase the safety of children with food allergies who were admitted to a children’s hospitals in the US [ 10 ]. The authors stated that other hospitals that they contacted reported not having a relevant protocol, and that they were handling each patient on a case by case basis.…”

Section: Approaches For Establishing Food Allergy Safety In Food Service Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The increasing prevalence of anaphylaxis caused by food allergies worldwide [ 2 , 12 ] requires the attention of hospital food service systems; however, standards of practice for safety protocols are scarce [ 9 , 10 , 27 ]. The Israeli Ministry of Health’s policy is “patient-centered”.…”

Section: The Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improving communication between medical systems and food services is an important strategy to reduce risks. This improved communication is based in part on the utilization of computerized systems, thus reducing the need for human communication within a busy clinical environment [ 10 ]. Importantly, the broad range of hospital employees, with their diversity in professional knowledge and specialties, poses challenges [ 2 , 11 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Section: The Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A lack of documented procedures raises the risk of an accidental exposure to allergens among patients with food allergies [ 10 , 11 ]. Therefore, we incorporated the interventions we performed, including those that were technically implemented in the hospital foodservice, into a written institutional procedure.…”

Section: The Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food allergy safety: a descriptive report of changing policy in a single large medical center

Harari

Toren

Tal

et al. 2021

Isr J Health Policy Res

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Background Food allergy can result in life-threatening anaphylaxis and is considered an increasing public health burden. Hospitalized patients are dependent on the hospital menu to meet their nutritional needs; thus, errors in the meals provided can have a substantial impact on patients’ health outcomes. In Israel, no specific policy protocol exists to ensure food allergy safety in the setting of a hospital foodservice system. Objectives This paper has two aims: 1) to provide an in-depth review of food allergy as a major public health concern and 2) to report actions taken in a single large medical center, as an ongoing project that aimed to ensure patients’ safety, and which ended in developing policy on this matter. Results During the years 2017–2019, we initiated several interventions with the goal of achieving food allergy safety and ensuring quality of care for patients with food allergies at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center. These included integrating food management safety into the computerized foodservice system, highlighting labels on patients’ food trays, introducing safety checks into the process of food delivery to hospitalized patients; and ensuring the nutritional requirements of patients with allergy restrictions. Moreover, changes were made in specialized menus for patients with various types of food allergy, and specific procedures were implemented regarding enteral feeding, to prevent accidental allergen exposure. All the procedures were incorporated into a written protocol that applies to all hospital employees, and the staff received the relevant training. Conclusions Our experience suggests that methods for food allergy safety should be promoted, and that an established policy and suitable set of guidelines on this matter is required. This clearly mandates collaboration between the various sectors of the hospital, including management and the computer department; and the medical, nursing, dietetics and kitchen staffs. Furthermore, routine ongoing knowledge training programs for medical teams and kitchen staff are crucial for such implementational changes. In a technological world, computerized systems delivering food to hospitalized patients must be adapted such as to create a uniformly safe food environment of healthcare systems, and developing a suitable policy should be prioritized accordingly by hospitals across Israel, with collaboration and synergy between institutions management and the departments of nutrition and patient safety and risk management.

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Section: The Projectmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Approaches For Establishing Food Allergy Safety In Food Service Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%