Physicians group seeks to ban fast food from hospitals

WASHINGTON — Much like airline food, hospital food is notoriously awful — but perhaps serving Big Macs and McNuggets at medical centers isn't the way to go. A nonprofit group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is aiming to expose the rather sketchy relationship between fast food chains and hospitals in hopes that burgers and fries will be kicked to the curb.

In the fifth report of a series on hospital food, the PCRM reveals that "Chick-fil-A has at least 20 hospital locations, McDonald’s has at least 18, and Wendy’s has at least five" across the U.S. Takepart.com points out that "Most of [these] hospitals are located in the South, where, according to Centers for Disease Control statistics, obesity rates are disproportionately high."

The PCRM report takes a closer look at several contracts and finds that at Houston's Ben Taub General Hospital, "the monthly rent McDonald’s pays to the hospital increases based on food sales" — meaning, the more burgers sold, the more the hospital profits. A medical center in Greenville, South Carolina has a contract with an on-site Chick-Fil-A stating that the hospital will "make every reasonable effort to increase the sales and business" for the chicken sandwich purveyor; the report points out that this is despite "an analysis published in Nutrition and Cancer: An International Journal [which] found that Chick-fil-A chicken samples commonly contain PhIP, a carcinogen linked to breast, colon, and prostate cancer." A McDonald's location at a Georgia hospital even offers bedside delivery.