Columbus Community Hospital Expands Patient Food Options

Columbus, NE (December 2004) Columbus Community Hospital (CCH) is pleased to announce the World Class Patient Service Menus as part of the efforts to improve patient dining while staying in the hospital. The Nutrition Services department, Cafeteria and hospital catering are run by the Hospital but managed by Aramark. Aramark is based out of Philadelphia, PA.

The World Class Patient Service Menus are an enhancement to the single traditional menu option offered to patients at CCH in the past. CCH Patients will now have the opportunity to order their food selections by choosing from one of six dietary menus: Regular; Soft; Heart Healthy; Limited Sodium; Mechanically Soft; and Carbohydrate Count Menus. All menus are color coded and labeled for easy identification.

The menus were originally developed by Aramark and have been used at many other locations such as Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital and Madonna Rehabilitation Center in Lincoln and St. Luke’s Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa. They were personally modified by the CCH dietitians, Deb Moore and Joan Plummer, and come with educational information on the various diets.

In addition to the six choices of menus, the patients will be able to choose from three items per meal within their own diet. When the patient arrives, they will be able to select food for the following day.

“We are pleased to offer this new menu and the variety of menu selections to our patients. It is our hope that our patients will be pleased with the new options and selections,” states Food Service Director, George Sipp.

Prairie Wind Café, the hospital cafeteria, is open to the public from 6:30 am – 6:30 pm each day and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition they offer Meals on Wheels services for Columbus residents. The Meals on Wheels program provides a delivered noon meal available to all seniors or physically handicapped adults for a fee. The food for Meals on Wheels is delivered by volunteers from various churches in the Columbus area.

The CCH Nutrition Services Department is staffed by 32 employees (15 full time and 14 part time)
plus 3 dietitians (1 full time and 2 part time). The department provides an average of 2,300 meals per week to residents of the city of Columbus, patients, staff and visitors of the Hospital.

For more information on any of the food services at Columbus Community Hospital, contact George Sipp at 562-4461.
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