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Leading U.S. Hospitals Serving Up Fast Food Researchers: Fast Food Sends Patients Mixed
Health Message POSTED: 4:22 p.m. EDT June 12,
2002 A trip to the hospital usually
means either you or someone you know is in poor health and needs immediate
medical attention. And when it's time to go home,
most likely, your doctor will give you a list of dos and don'ts, telling you to
eat a healthy diet and make sure to exercise. So, when you see your favorite
fast-food restaurant inside the hospital that just told you to eat healthy, you
may be getting a mixed message -- a message it appears many of the nation's top
health institutions are sending. In a research letter published
in the June 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association,
researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and Ann Arbor Veterans
Affairs Medical Center found 38 percent of the nation's top health institutions
had regional or national fast food franchises on their main medical campuses. It's a statistic that is
alarming to the authors of the letter. "Obesity is rising at an
alarming rate in the United States, with nearly 18 percent of adult Americans
now considered obese. High-calorie diets, due in part to fast food, are
partially to blame," said Dr. Peter Cram, lead author of the letter and
lecturer in the internal medicine department at the University of Michigan.
"However, fast-food restaurants continue to pop up across the country and
hospitals appear to be no exception." The researchers performed a
telephone survey of 16 facilities listed as "Honor Roll" hospitals by
the 2001 U.S. News & World Report ranking of "America's Best
Hospitals." Six of the 16 "Honor Roll" hospitals were found to
have fast-food restaurants, with four facilities contracting with two chains
simultaneously. Among the six with fast-food
chains includes the University of Michigan Health System, an observation that
inspired their research, said co-author Dr. Brahmajee Nallamothu. "I always found it odd
that as a health institution we had a fast-food chain in our facility, and I
wondered if other top hospitals also did," Nallamothu said. "But
through my research, I found the UMHS food services department works hard to
make sure the fast-food chain offers healthy choices. In fact, the restaurant
specifically marks the healthy food items on its menu." Hospital officials said it's
tough to provide fresh food on a 24-hour basis, and some said they work with
fast-food franchises on providing healthier options on their menus. Dr. Mark Fendrick, another of
the letter's co-authors, pointed out that hospitals are businesses and they have
certain needs they need to address. "I realize these hospitals
need to address important economic issues such as customer satisfaction,
employee retention, and financial viability, and I believe fast-food restaurants
in hospitals offer patients and their families a sense of comfort,"
Fendrick said. "However, if hospitals and the medical profession are to
remain respected leaders in health promotion, we should re-visit the idea of
serving fast food in the very place that we care for our most seriously
ill." The fast-food debate echoes
another recent issue that faced hospitals, said senior author Dr. Sanjay Saint,
a research scientist at the Ann Arbor VA Medial Center. "Hospitals should serve as
an example for health-conscious behavior," he said. "Forbidding
smoking from American medical centers was a crucial first step. Perhaps
encouraging healthy dietary intake will be a second." |