St John of God Health Care rolls out premium hotel-style menu in place of bland food across its hospitals

A stay in the hospital will never be the same again for West Aussies — with a private health care organisation rolling out top notch grub for patients.

St John of God Health Care is switching from offering the same bland food to the choice of premium hotel-style room service for its patients.

It comes after being first trialled at its Murdoch hospital in 2020 then rolled out across its hospitals in WA — including Subiaco, Midland and Mt Lawley — and Australia.

St John of God Geraldton Hospital completed the rollout, which gives patients the freedom to order whatever they like from the room service menu throughout the day, last week.

The menu includes options such as salmon and fillet steak.

St John of God Health Care chief executive Bryan Pyne said the move away from traditional hospital fare based on set menus and meal times had not only benefitted patients but also served up big savings in production and costs.

“Hospital food has traditionally had a bad name for being bland, unappealing and served up at rigid times, which leads to lower nutritional intake, wasted food and, most importantly, poor patient experience,” he said.

“It’s an approach which doesn’t match our patient-centred style of care or allow flexibility for patients who may have just given birth, woken up from surgery or had cancer treatment.

“A major bonus of the change is the positive impact it’s had on both costs and food waste.

“This change has also had a significant positive sustainability outcome, reducing food waste by 24 per cent in the 2024 financial year

“As an added benefit, we anticipate annual cost savings of around $5.4 million on both food and production costs.”

While the hotel-style menu has a variety of choices, comfort foods remain popular.

Heading the list is Build a Burger, accounting for more than 45,000 orders in the past year, with stir fry, grilled barramundi, lasagna and shepherd’s pie filling out the top five picks.

“The results have been overwhelmingly positive,” Mr Pyne said.

“The room service initiative was launched for many reasons including nutrition, sustainability, patient experience and financial stewardship.

“It’s been successful on every measure, with the bonus of better patient experience ratings for our hospitals.”

Mr Pyne said the organisation’s caregivers also found the new system, handled through Perth and Bendigo, more rewarding.

“Our caregivers also find it more rewarding because it’s an interactive service which gets a great response and they can engage with patients to help them make nutrition choices that aid recovery,” he said.

“All room service orders are taken through our Perth and Bendigo call centres, which handled more than 1.3 million calls last financial year, with an average queue time of just 50 seconds.”