Only in Local-America

[ysabetwordsmith]

... would a hospital make a McDonald's its adjunct restaurant.  Think about all the times doctors nag people to eat better and lose weight, and all the people who can't  eat McDonald's due to special dietary needs.  I am just boggled by the loss of opportunity, because this shit is routine in L-American "health care" -- they push people around, but refuse to lift a finger to help.  Hospital food is almost universally slop of exactly the kind they tell people not to eat, and the cafeterias or adjunct restaurants are barely better.  What they should be doing is serving delicious well-balanced meals to show  people how that works, and then doctors should eat that in public, because humans are prone to imitative behavior.  I've read about outliers having an organic restaurant, but in terms of access, that's still a unicorn hunt.  But McDonald's?  Really?  WTF.

Fortunately someone working there does NOT have their head up their ass, and has started a petition to replace it with a restaurant serving healthy food.

Comments

[technoshaman]

Sadly, that's not the only hospital I know with The Scottish Restaurant in-house. :(

[ikneko]

That's really unfortunate for the Hospital and all its patients. It's like no one really planned that one out.

[mashfanficchick]

The good thing is that my local hospital system (Northwell Health, formerly known as Long Island Jewish / North Shore Hospital) has better sense than that overall; they partner with Au Bon Pan, and also stock their "candy" machines with healthy options like tuna kits and protein packs.

(The bad thing is that they occasionally take it too far, by dint of not realizing how individuals' needs might not be what's expected. Case in point: they only have diet soda on campus, for sale or otherwise. So if you're in the ER with a loved one, and can't have diet soda or coffee--as is the case with MANY people I know--you're screwed if you rely on caffeine to stay awake.)

[kengr]

*sigh*

I know that back in the 60s a big thing was made of how the hospital nutritionists who were sick of complaints about the various special diets started serving them to the doctors.

"What is this crap?!"

"Oh that's the diet you've prescribed to [list of patients]..."


But this *is* a sort of different problem.

I bet the McDonalds got in because they were willing to pay the most for the privilege.

TW: queasy stomachs beware

[ng_moonmoth]

>> Hospital food is almost universally slop of exactly the kind they tell people not to eat <<

Amen! I was laid up for a week earlier this year, and it took me a couple of days to work through the menu to find the few items that didn't range from unappetizing to disgusting. And while I'm a foodie, and can appreciate the good stuff, I'm certainly no finicky gourmet.

Cooked vegetables were nearly a uniform disaster area -- barely beyond raw, and cold when brought to my room! "Beef" was pink slime, "chicken" mainly white slime. Hamburgers and grilled chicken breasts were apparently beyond their capability to desecrate; the sandwich meat and raw fruits and vegetables were good enough to sustain me. And the fish congee that was on the menu to appeal to their east Asian patients was rather good.

And this is what passes for food for patients at one of the better hospitals in my area. I shudder to think about what the hospitals serving less affluent areas might be reduced to.

I wonder if anyone has suggested that feeding their patients properly would be more likely to get them to recover enough to leave the hospital sooner? Or are they of the opinion that the food quality might prompt a faster exit? :/

[alatefeline]

*headdesk*

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

I'd be willing to bet you a chocolate-covered doughnut that the McDonald's owner offered the owners of the hospital building a tidy sum for the privilege of moving in and doing business there.
Too many doctors still smoke/drink excessively, don't exercise, and don't know much if anything at all about proper diet.
:^{