Healthcare dining trending: The impact of coronavirus on onsite healthcare dining, Morrison Healthcare turns café’s uptick into pop-up market

Hospitals, the battleground of the coronavirus pandemic, have faced uphill battles in onsite foodservice ranging from pop-up markets for staff to inventive dishes and solutions. This month, Food Management wrote about several innovations and operators stories across the segment.

Dining programs in hospitals are likely to see a short-term surge in patient dining but a continued slump in retail dining. According to Datassential, 55% of healthcare operators are "worried, but fairly confident our operation will get through [coronavirus] in one piece" while 56% of healthcare operators report food sales are down. Find out more in the report on the segment here.

But, despite a downturn in sales in general, facilities are improvising to help the workers that are helping the sick. At Medical Health Center Health System’s main hospital in Odessa, Texas, a pop-up market has been a day-to-day lifeline of convenience and safety for the healthcare workers continuing to work during the COVID-19 crisis. This pop-up market is open 16 hours a day and features a Quiznos, Starbucks and sushi center. 

And in New Jersey, CentraState Health System is giving recovered coronavirus patients box full of meals at no cost to the patients.

Find out what else was trending this month in healthcare dining on Food Management.