Brightshores Health System has signed onto Mohawk Medbuy's MEALsource Nutrition Procurement Program, aiming to bring fresher, more cost effective meals to its patients.
"The MEALsource program is an opportunity for Brightshores to leverage some buying power in terms of our contracts for our foods when we're sourcing," said Jesse Dixon, Director of Support Services at Brightshores. "Additional to that is they source local produce, local meats, those sorts of things. As part of their program, they're always looking to buy within Ontario and Canada first, before looking externally."
Not only will it help save some money for the hospital, but it will also bring more fresh food and variety to the meals patients can order.
"Hospital food has always got a stigma attached to it," said Dixon. "We're hopefully going to have better nutrient dense foods, better quality foods, different options. In the last few months, we put things like an egg sandwich in for breakfast, french toast, some of those things that weren't typically associated with patient meals in hospitals."
Dixon said while those with medical or dietary restrictions won't necessarily get the best meal, this is another step towards patient comfort.
"If you've come in for a broken leg or if you're having a baby, then we want to try and provide things that will make you feel more comfortable when you're feeling unwell," Dixon said.
The MEALsource program has no middleman involved, so Dixon said it makes for quicker food delivery, also contributing to the better price.
"They also have a fantastic monthly buying group where all the hospitals that are signed on with them meet and touch base and talk about ways to increase patient food services, so we were really drawn to that as well," he said.