Hospitals Uncertain on Impact of Obamacare

摘要

The average daily number of patients fed per hospital is 205. It's no surprise, but as a hospital's annual food and beverage purchases increase, so does the number of patients fed daily. Hospitals in the Northeast serve the most patients daily, at 344. Those in the West serve the least, at 153. The patient meal count at the majority of hospitals-83%-either remained the same or increased in the past two years. Hospitals with annual food and beverage purchases of $5 million or more were significantly more likely-at 70%-than those locations with smaller purchases (36%) to report an increase in patient meal count. For those hospitals that had an increase in patient meal counts, the average increase was 16%. Those hospitals that serve the most retail meals/transaction per day (2,000 or more) were significantly more likely to report a lower growth percentage in daily patient meal counts. For those hospitals that reported a decrease in daily patient meals, the average decline was 17%. Foodservice departments in the central region reported the largest percentage drop in patient meals, at 22%. Hospitals with less than $200,000 in annual food and beverage purchases were significantly more likely than hospitals with larger annual purchases to see a higher percentage decrease in patient meals. Those hospitals reported a 40% decline in the number of patients they serve daily.