Hospital Power Players: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

47. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles

Licensed Beds: 877
Management: Sodexo
Avg. Daily In-patient Census: 667
Avg. No. In-patient Meals/Day: 2,000
No. of Retail Dining Outlets: 5
Total Annual Retail Sales: $12 million
Dining/Nutrition Services FTEs: 316

Patient dining at Cedars-Sinai is a traditional tray service program with a variety of menus to meet patient preferences and needs, including vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and lactose-free. There is also a fully glatt kosher (a stricter form of kosher) meal service for observant Jewish patients and a wide range of therapeutic diets to comply with the nutrition-care regimen ordered by physicians and/or dieticians.

The in-house dining department operates five retail dining outlets in the hospital itself and another three in the adjacent medical building. The biggest is the Ray Charles Cafeteria, with an extensive selection of healthy dining options, including a hearty salad bar, soups, made-to-order deli sandwiches, housemade pizza and grill items as well as vegetarian, vegan and kosher choices.

The hospital also has a branded La Brea Bakery unit that debuted a year ago and is a self-standing, fully enclosed, quick-serve unit offering sandwiches such as grilled paninis made on La Brea’s artisan breads, along with freshly prepared salads, gourmet soups, assorted beverages, a full line of pastries and custom-made food baskets.

The Plaza Café offers breakfast, lunch and dinner with both table service and take out. Its menu includes daily specials, salads and healthy sandwiches. Artisan Café serves breakfast and lunch featuring local seasonal produce and antibiotic- and hormone-free proteins.

The Starbucks at Cedars-Sinai is the top volume store in a healthcare setting, according to the hospital, serving 45,000 customers a month. It operates seven days a week and brews 3,600 pounds of coffee and 1,000 pounds of espresso a month. The food menu currently consists of a full line of pastries but near-term plans call for the addition of a warming station to expand into a line of hot sandwiches.

The medical building’s three retail units are Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf coffee/tea/pastry shop, Judi’s Deli (various breakfast, lunch and dinner items, including omelets, pancakes, sandwiches, wraps, fresh soups and salads) and The Sandwich Bar (panini’s, cold sandwiches, soups, salads and smoothies).

An in-room dining option allows visitors to share a meal with a patient or order an additional tray delivered to the patient’s room for an additional fee.