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HEALTH CARE FOOD AND ACTIVITY ENVIRONMENTS ENACT STRATEGY: Eliminate fast food Eliminate co-location of fast food restaurants at hospitals and other health care facilities A hospital’s mission is to improve the health of the population it serves and serving fast food to patients, visitors, and staff is counter to this mission. Fast food has been correlated with poor diets and poor health outcomes in numerous studies. A 2006 report by The American Medical Association performed a survey of fast food in healthcare facilities and found that of the 234 hospitals surveyed, 42 percent were selling brand-name fast food on their campuses. Hospitals should be a role model for other institutions by offering a variety of healthy foods and eliminating fast food options.
Toby Cosgrove, Director of the Cleveland Clinic and cardiovascular surgeon, questioned how in good conscience they could tempt their patients with foods inconsistent with the heart healthy advice they give their patients. He succeeded in a campaign to getting Pizza Hut to leave and currently is still battling McDonalds. AMSA Healthy Hospitals Campaign The American Medical Student Association’s Healthy Hospital Campaign aims to remove fast food vendors from hospital grounds. Their website also summarizes research on the harm of fast food. Health Care Without Harm is working with hospitals to provide nutritionally improved food for patients, staff, visitors, and the general public. Fast Food Restaurants at Children’s Hospitals Fast food restaurants are fairly common in hospitals that sponsor pediatric residency programs. A McDonald’s restaurant in a children’s hospital was associated with significantly increased purchase of McDonald’s food by outpatients, belief that the McDonald’s Corporation supported the hospital financially, and higher rating of the healthiness of McDonald’s food.
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Eliminate Fast Food in Your Local Health Care Facilities