County-Wide Collaborative to Improve the Food and Beverage Environment in Hospitals

Hospitals are responsible for the health of populations, as such, these institutions should promote the healthy choice whenever possible. In DuPage County, a collaborative group, consisting of all the hospitals in the county, convened by FORWARD (an obesity prevention program housed at DuPage County Health Department), was formed to discuss ways to improve the hospital campuses’ food and beverage environments. The collaborative group meets quarterly to share resources, challenges, and successes related to improved nutrition and healthy beverage options in hospitals. Both the American Heart Association and the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity also participate in the quarterly calls to share new resources and valuable information gleaned from hospitals doing this work across the nation. The purpose of this session is to share best practices and challenges of working with a group of hospitals toward improving their food and beverage environments.

Several of the hospitals in our collaborative group now have sales data showing that, since their changes, the healthier choice has become the more popular choice. For example, a greater number of people are purchasing water post-intervention when compared to pre-intervention. Another hospital has sales data showing that the changes have remained revenue neutral, so staff is able to show leadership that the hospital won’t lose money due to offering healthier options.

Eventually, the goals of FORWARD are to encourage the hospitals to spread what they have learned to the other workplaces within their catchment areas and to increase the number of written policies each hospital enacts to encourage healthy food and beverage options.