It's hard to think of two things that fit together more seamlessly with overarching objectives than sustainability and healthcare foodservice.

Ask healthcare foodservice professionals about some of the challenges that keep them up at night and they will try to tell you their businesses are much like other industry segments. And, in a sense, they are right.

Intense competition among healthcare providers and increased pressure to continually improve the quality of food and services while containing and reducing costs have long been the challenges facing healthcare foodservice operators. So what’s new? The new normal is exponentially more intensively competitive with unprecedented pressure on healthcare foodservice operators to be at the top of their games.

2016 IFMA Silver Plate winner in healthcare Diane Imrie, MBA, RD, director of Nutrition Services at The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, discusses cultural change, customer service and more.

For today’s healthcare foodservice operator, speed of service has become just as important as food quality. One veteran foodservice consultant outlines five steps that can help non-commercial foodservice operators, including those in the healthcare segment, get their customers through the service lines quicker and back to their busy lives.

Healthcare foodservice providers must dig deep into their creative wells as the wild healthcare ride becomes more tumultuous with demands for cost containment and quality improvements.

Today's innovative healthcare foodservice providers tend to be masters of multiple disciplines. Their business models often range from retail to catering to patient foodservice, with a few grab-and-go options tossed in for good measure.

Ryan Conklin oversees culinary operations for Rex Healthcare's room service-style patient dining as well as two retail outlets, two extended care facilities, catering and special events, serving 4,800 meals daily. In March, Conklin won the Triangle competition.

Elevating pizza to a new level of popularity at Rex Healthcare took a lot of work, but the end result continues to exceed expectations.

As the expectations for healthcare foodservice keep mounting so, too, do the creative ways that operators like Dan and countless others across the industry continue to multiply.

Celebrity chefs and celebrity chef wannabes have carved out a place for themselves in today’s pop culture scene. Yet one group of culinarians consistently overlooked are those individuals serving in the healthcare foodservice community, which has become one of the most sophisticated operator segments there is.

A café in Saint Francis Hospital’s new emergency center/patient tower and a servery and kitchen at the Laureate Eating Disorders Program offer staff, visitors andpatients healthful meal and snack options.

With an emphasis on expanding menus, speed of service and the use of locally sourced ingredients to create dishes that rival the strongest of restaurants, healthcare foodservice continues to enjoy a renaissance.

When you think about your career — when you think about your industry — what is it that you think about most?

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act and an increasing emphasis on healthier eating, healthcare foodservice remains in the spotlight. These operators not only feel the need to increase the quality of the food they offer but their menus have to be healthier and more diverse than ever before.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. If that is true, and I think it is, then competition has to be considered at least the older sibling of growth and innovation. Recent advancements in healthcare foodservice represent a prime example.

Americans must hold on to their hats to weather the wild ride the country has been taking since the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Healthcare foodservice professionals are responding to the ever-changing environment with creative solutions for containing costs; generating revenue; providing responsive, high-quality, patient-centered care; introducing wellness-focused initiatives; and applying information and machine technology to enhance efficiency and improve the quality of food and service. Add to this finding ways to work within consolidated healthcare systems and this year promises to present unprecedented challenges.

The Association for Healthcare Foodservice announced the winners of its 2014 Future Horizons, Spotlight, Partnership in Leadership and Exemplary Leadership awards. AHF will present the awards during its annual conference, which takes place June 3-6 in Orlando, Fla.

Healthcare foodservice has gone through a renaissance of sorts in the last few years. While many institutions have redone their main cafeterias and serveries, revisiting their retail outlets has become another important part of the refreshing process. 

Uncertainty, cost containment, patient-centered care, retail cafés and wellness all make the list of top trends in today's ever-challenging, ever-dynamic world of healthcare foodservice.

Awards will be given at the organization's annual conference in June. 

Replacing an aging facility, the multiplatform Wildflower Café features culinary variety while room service offers patients a restaurant-style, on-demand food delivery system.

Non-commercial foodservice projects can take a lot of forms. Here we explore the impetus behind the design of a pair of Chicago-based installations and how their uses shaped equipment selection.

Menu labeling and insurance mandates loom large for the foodservice industry.

As a business leader you are undoubtedly aware that the Affordable Healthcare Act is about to take effect. But that seems to be where most people's understanding of the legislation begins and ends. That's because this legislation is highly complex and to someone outside of Washington, D.C., it seems like a maze of regulations that are indiscriminately and independently linked to each other.

Under pressure to contain costs and increase accountability, healthcare foodservice providers are focusing on improving patient and retail customer satisfaction. Innovative solutions to gargantuan challenges are appearing in operations nationwide.

A responsive, efficient room service program is bringing compliments from patients, staff and visitors and changing their perception of what patient foodservice can offer.