The Healthy 15

Avera Heart Hospital, Sioux Falls, S.D.

Long before most hospitals fully embraced the idea of healthful dining, Joanne Shearer believed that it should be a hospital’s mission to promote health and wellness in its foodservice program.

So when 52-bed Avera Heart Hospital was built 10 years ago, Shearer, the now-retired food and nutrition services director, created A La Heart Café to be a trendsetter among hospital foodservice venues.

“Joanne’s dream was to have one healthy food culture for the entire organization,” says Mary Beth Russell, R.D., who replaced Shearer as director about two years ago. “She wanted to use a Mediterranean-type influence in the cooking process and how we taught our classes so we could benefit heart patients. So that is how she designed our menu.”

According to Russell, Shearer demonstrated her resolve even before the café opened. “This hospital was a copycat of several the organization had built around the country, so the kitchen was very standard,” Russell says. “Everybody got the same equipment. The first thing she did, when the equipment arrived, was she refused to let them put in a fryer of any kind. I think what she bought instead was a tilt skillet so we could do sautéing. So there are no fried foods in our hospital.”

The menu changes twice a year, and before each changeover staff will gather to review the menu to come up with several new items to keep the menus fresh. Russell notes that, in an effort to control sodium levels, all soups are made fresh in house. Overall, between 70% and 80% of the menu items are made from scratch.

“We also post nutritional data for all of our entrées, which is probably our best marketing tool,” she says. “It actually brings people in. We have some surrounding facilities and people will walk over here for lunch because of our healthy culture and our nutrition information.”

Ironically, if there is one negative to the program, Russell adds, it would be the department’s emphasis on reducing salt. “Patient satisfaction, when it comes to taste, is lower than we would like it,” she says. “The No. 1 complaint is that we use too little salt. We try to overcome that by using different spices and seasonings, but the flavors aren’t always what patients expect.”

Still, the foodservice program is generally well received. Russell says she has noticed it particularly because she moved from the patient education side to foodservice. “The cool thing about it is we have nurses and doctors, and all of our staff, having firsthand experience eating the same kinds of foods we’re encouraging our patients to eat,” she says. “It really helps with education to have the support of the staff.”