Ep. 234: Managing Food Allergies in the Hospital Setting

We’re learning how to navigate a hospital stay when you have food allergies from a food allergy patient, parent, advocate, and chef who operated a hospital kitchen for over eight years. Martha Morgan, Founder and Owner of Allergy Dragon, helps us learn about how hospital kitchens operate and critical tips for staying safe during a hospital stay.

 Resources to keep you in the know:

• Allergy Dragon Website 
• Allergy Dragon YouTube Channel 

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Transcript

Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions, each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the facts to know or use.

Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice. Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation.

Hi everyone, I'm Caroline Moassessi and I am your host for the FAACT Roundtable podcast. I am a food allergy parent and advocate and the founder of the Grateful Foodie Blog.

And I am FACT's Vice President of Community Relations.

Before we start today's podcast, I just want to say thank you to Ars Pharma for their kind sponsorship of FACT's Roundtable podcast.

We're learning about how to navigate a hospital stay when you have food allergies from a food allergy patient, parent advocate and chef who operated a hospital kitchen for over eight years.

Martha Morgan, founder and owner of Allergy Dragon, will help us learn how hospital kitchens operate and critical tips for staying safe during a hospital stay.

Martha, welcome back to FAACT's Roundtable Podcast. We're absolutely delighted to have you here because this is a topic that really stresses us out and this is a topic that you know so well.

So welcome.

Martha : Thank you so much Caroline. It's great to be back on the podcast.

Caroline: Well, before we get started, I want to talk about you a little bit. So you have this really extensive cooking and food allergy background, plus you're doing a few interesting food allergy and celiac related projects.

So can you just share briefly with our listeners your background and then what you're doing in the food allergy world right now?

Martha : Sure. So briefly I started as briefly as I can. I've been cooking professionally for about 30 years. I got introduced to the food allergy spectrum with my youngest child's birth in 2002 when we introduced strawberries.

And then so I became a food allergy mom. And then in 2004 ish, I became a food allergy patient myself with my first reactions.

And then in 2009 I became a celiac patient along with my oldest son at the time. And then fast forward my career and live living to 2014. I switched to an institutional food setting in the healthcare and so I ran a hospital kitchen and really was able to embrace and learn at the same time all these medical diets and also use my,

I call it powers, but my my powers for good. And it was eye opening too in a sense for Me because I didn't realize the big disconnect that there was in the medical field and food allergies, which, you know, at the time didn't make sense.

And I'm sure we'll go more into that. Finally I decided in like 2018 to start a YouTube channel and created Allergy Dragon from there. And so I do cooking classes and online in person here in Louisville, Kentucky, if you are happen to be listening and local or you even drive up from Florida,

which I have had recently had happen.

You know, I just try to embrace the fact that everyone deserves delicious food no matter what your diet restrictions are. And just recently, as far as events that I've gotten to do, we did the Biscuits and Gravy cup, which is like the world's largest biscuits and gravy hiking competition and it benefits the local boys and girls Haven.

And it's been going on, I think about 13, 14 years thereabouts. And I actually won third place for my vegetarian gravy, which is gluten free, vegan, top nine allergen free and you know, alpha gal safe.

And so that just further proves that, you know, free from does not mean free from flavor. And that's like my biggest driving mission for everybody to feel happy with the food they're eating and not that they're being left out or missing something.

And to bring joy back into the kitchen or even to, to discover joy that you never knew you were missing, I guess, especially if you've grown up with food allergies.

And so that's briefly in what I do.

Caroline: Well, first, congratulations. That is a really, really big deal. Not only it speaks to your culinary skills, but I think for everyone in our community, in the celiac community and anyone on a special diet, that is a huge win for all of us.

So it's not just a win for you, it's a win for all of us because it's showing the world. Like you said, food can be delicious when we have restrictions.

We just need that scientific knowledge, that culinary knowledge, all that good juju that you bring together to do it. So congratulations. That's a big deal.

Martha : Thank you. Thank you very much.

Caroline: And listeners, I'm going to make sure I have all of Martha's links in the show notes so you can go to her website and you can follow her and you can see about classes and hear about these cool awards and all that kind of good stuff.

So now we're going to dive right into our topic of navigating a hospital stay. So first, let's talk about how a hospital kitchen functions compared to other professional kitchens, like, you know, just the restaurant down the street.

And then if you can go into what do listeners need to know about the hospital kitchen?

Martha : Sure. So a hospital kitchen and a restaurant kitchen, oddly enough, are very similar in the basic operations to a certain degree, because we all have to, you know, conform to the FDA and health code.

The biggest issue with all kitchens is size, which, you know, hampers how you can actually accommodate people. It really does.

So some kitchens are bigger, some kitchens aren't. The other thing that the hospital has to do that, I guess regular restaurant kitchen is not going to be thinking about, is the fact that we are a little bit more closely watched by the fda.

We also have joint commission, so we have a lot more governing agencies with eyes on us. And, you know, everybody's like fda.

And I think it's silly, but it took me working in a hospital kitchen to realize that, you know, when you're in the hospital and you're staying and you have a diet order, that is your prescription, that's your food prescription.

And so that is even being looked at. So when we get inspected by the health department, like we normally do, like your state health department, and then we have a joint commission, which is usually there for three to five days, if they haven't seen anything, then we also have a state.

If you happen to do be having a nursing home, which is the facility I was at, had a nursing home as well. So we actually had three state governing inspections yearly, every other year, and then every six months.

So it depends on the governing agent.

And the other thing that you have to look at is we're working with the dietitians. You have a lot of working pieces. And it has to do with communication. And with any good kitchen, restaurant or hospital, the communication has to be there from all these moving parts to make sure that you get safe food.

And then to go into the second part, what do you need to know as somebody that is in the hospital, whether you happen to be there for an emergency or planned practice.

Some things to think about is the fact that shift changes and it goes into communication as well.

So various departments you're working with, the registered dietitians you're working with. In some cases, depending on how big your hospital is, you're working with a supervisor for the dining area, for like the retail area or a manager.

Then you have your chef who is over the actual kitchen itself and usually mandates and looks at all of the food and who's running it. And then. And that's Four cafeteria or retail, what they call retail a lot of times.

And then for the patients as well. And then you also have a manager for the patient side and retail. So it kind of breaks it down to like three compartments depending on how big your hospital is.

I actually was at a very small hospital, so I was kind of over kind of both. And we had, I had a manager. So it's, it depends on how it's broke down.

But generally speaking, those people are going to work a morning shift and you're going to have different people in the evening. So it also depends on what time you're being admitted into the hospital.

And you know, communication is a thing. Do have a lot of people that as English as a second language maybe, you know, communication without having the general bosses or supervisors and chains of command that they're used to having may become difficult to make sure that you are clearly being served.

So with that being said, if you can get there in the morning time and you're getting there before 4 or 5 o'clock, before managers and supervisors are going home, that would be your best bet as far as to communicate, especially if it's an emergency.

Caroline: Really important information. Thank you so much. You were just opening my eyes right there. So now let's go even deeper and turn our attention into the steps to take navigating the stay.

So let's go through a scenario like when a patient is being admitted. So they've been admitted and now what? How do they commute?

How do they communicate their allergies and now how do they stay safe that whole entire stay?

Martha : Well, with anything with food allergies, as you know, planning is key. So obviously if you have a planned stay at the hospital, that is your best bet for your best outcome to actually be able to talk.

And I would say you would need to speak with a registered dietitian as well as kitchen staff. So chef supervisors. And I would actually want to speak to the chef manager and I would also want to speak to the patient manager or supervisor how whatever their dictated title may be and.

Or they may even say culinary super supervisor. That used to be my title. So it just depends. But I would say I want to speak to whoever's over kitchen management employees who is over my tray line or who will be serving my tray and also who is over the dietitians or the dietitian that's serving me.

I would like to have a meeting with all three, if in some cases possible to get them all three in the room. It's really great. That's your Best bet. Also, you would do the same thing if you're there on an emergency basis as soon as you can.

Now, let's say you coming in at nighttime and you don't have a whole lot of food.

One, make sure that you are expressing your food allergies.

Make sure you have a plan in action that if you are incapacitated, you're able to communicate your allergens. Because these are also medications.

So you wanna make sure, especially if you have a soy allergy or an egg allergy, those are in dairy, those are big in medications.

So it's not only just about food, it's also about your medications and they should be looking at all of those. And I can't sit here and say for room service as far as like how your RNs and that kind of thing are gonna treat you.

Each hospital is gonna be different on how they handle the rooming situation and how they alert about food allergies. But to make sure that every single person you that you are telling them your food allergies and to make sure that they are checking it in the chart, not just saying,

okay, that's great. Okay, that's nice. You know, make sure that they are communicating because it may not be the person that's supposed to be charting in there, but you want to make sure because you're going to be usually a lot of people.

And if you have any food allergies and even if you don't ask to speak to a registered dietitian or that kind of a thing. Most hospitals. Most, again, not all,

but I would still ask. I need to speak to a dietitian. I needed to speak to, you know, people authority as soon as you can and then remind them as well.

You are your biggest advocate even in that stay.

So that's what I would do.

Caroline: Very crucial information because it is so overwhelming because you're already managing an unfamiliar situation. It's a little bit of chaos and a lot of emotion and there's a lot going on.

So I think it's really important to have this information on how to manage the allergies. Which brings us really into our next area of discussion is in our food allergy world, a lot of us keep a go bag or a stay bag at home for natural disasters.

But then some of us, like me, used to keep a hospital go bag. So if we had to run to the ER or something, that we had safe foods and safe snacks.

And I did that out of learning a hard lesson of nine hours in the ER and no food for my Son.

So what do you suggest in terms of storing safe foods that could be be consumed in the ER or just in a bag that maybe a parent or someone else could step outside to eat?

Like what are your thoughts on having a whole hospital go bag? And if you have any suggestions,

I.

Martha : Think that is crucial as an allergy parent or anybody that has Celiac's disease or anything like that to have a go bag or have emergency snacks because one, we never know when we're going to need it.

And for the hospital it's extremely important because not only if you're kind of out of it yourself and maybe you don't have your purse, I mean worst case scenario, maybe you're kind of out of it.

You know, you got your go bag with you because you know, you made sure that that was there and taken with you. And you're like I have food allergies. And they, they're seeing exactly what is safe for you to eat.

So that's one aspect. The other aspect is to be able to have access food, you know, immediately when you need it, if you are, you know, admitted it late at night and then also for moms, parents or your other children because nine times out of 10 we don't have a babysitter.

So they're coming, all of us are coming to, to the hospital together.

So we want to have that. And as far as things that I always suggest people have in a hospital go bag is cereal, shelf staple alternative milk if you have one, especially small ones if you can.

And th those are good things to help keep you, you know, tied over. Plus you're getting protein usually shelf stable,

any type of stable butters that you could actually eat yourself so you can have protein. I, you know, fruit cups, things of those natures that are easy that you also will have nutrition.

I think that that's important to think about that fact.

Some people can have some of those like Wiggles or jiggles or gels or whatever depending like I said on your food allergies. Those are kind of things to kind of have because you're not sure exactly what you're going to get as far as products and brands.

And so it's always good to have things that like that you want to have when you're not feeling good in there. I would even have some canned soups or anything like that.

If there happens to be anything that you have that shelf stable that's nutritious and that is comforting for you is a big thing to think about as well. Like when I'm Recovering.

This is what I like to eat. And bread or crackers, you know, bread usually goes bad for us, but if you could have a good, go to cracker or rice cracker or something that of that nature that you could, if they had a safe deli meat, you could pair it with it.

So you know, thinking about long term, that kind of thing. And it also gives you a visual. Once you are talking to the RDS and the managed food managers, they might even be able to look at those products and get those products in versus you having to recall the products.

You can just be like, here, this. They may take a picture of it. They may be able to have a visual of. I know that brand, I've seen it. We can get that in for you.

Caroline: That was really important. And you know, you gave me ideas because I actually keep a hospital go bag now for my dad. He's 96 and I have all the foods in there that are safe for my kids so in case they have to take grandpa to the er.

So this was very helpful because I think my go bag's a little skinny. And I'm sure for our listeners too, this is really important because you just don't think about these things until you're in the moment.

So staying prepared is just really important. So thank you for those wonderful tips. Highly, highly valuable.

Before we wrap up today, is there anything else that you want our listeners to hear from you?

Martha : So I think one thing I would love to highlight is the fact that communication, communication is key.

And to find out how the hospital kitchen works in your actual hospital is key. In some cases, kitchen staff may be managed separately from your registered dietitians. So you have somewhat of a disconnect.

That's why it's so important to have a communication between all three of those departments, the people that are cooking your food, the people are serving your food, and your dietitian who is helping prescribe your diet.

Those three people are key to making sure that food that is safe on your tray gets up there, obviously talking to your nursing and staff and that kind of a thing for them to be your eyes as well.

If a tray comes up and they're looking at it. But it also depends on is this the CNA or the the RN is going to be serving you or if they have a separate kitchen staff person that is actually your server, having a good relationship with them is key as well.

So just communicating with them and you know, trying to make sure that all, all eyes are open before you have an issue.

I think that's the biggest thing.

Caroline: Thank you Martha for your wise words of wisdom. You always leave us better and I just appreciate your time. Fact appreciates your time and energy. And of course, as a community, we love to see our needs highlighted, uplifted, and so we just all appreciate you.

So thank you so much for being with us today.

Martha : Thank you so much. Ditto. I guess I should just say it that way. Ditto.

Caroline: Before we say goodbye today, I just want to say thank you one more time to Ars Pharma for their kind sponsorship of FAACT's Roundtable Podcast.

Thank you for listening to FAACT's Roundtable Podcast. Stay tuned for future episodes coming soon. Please subscribe, leave a review and listen to our podcast on Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Stitcher.

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