LOUISVILLE, KY – Patients and medical staff are abuzz about the University of Louisville Medical Center’s (ULMC) new dietary option: the American diet. It debuted on the menus and order sets alongside therapeutic hospital diets such as the diabetic, low sodium, and renal diets. It is also available in mechanical soft, puree, and tube feeding forms by special order.
The American diet quickly became the most popular diet ordered at ULMC, eclipsing regular, diabetic, and 2-gram sodium diets in a matter of days. ULMC is having difficulty keeping soy sauce packets in stock, however. ULMC’s Director of Nutrition Brad Bockengach reported that complaints about hospital food have “virtually disappeared, with the exception of the grumblings of a few rogue cardiologists.”
At ULMC, patient satisfaction scores doubled within the first week after the introduction of the new diet. Scores took a slight dip when the food services experienced a shortage of soy sauce packets but have now rebounded. One unintended effect is that several patients have attempted to refuse NPO status before procedures, while others have attempted to postpone discharges in order to consume extra American diet meals, according to Chief Resident Gennifer Adgekaye.
The diet is the brainchild of nephrologist F. Spinner Arndkopff, who has used it to treat numerous cases of hyponatremia. Arndkopff told Gomerblog, “it beats the heck out of free water restriction, and there’s no problem with adherence.”
