Caregivers in Spanish Fork Hospital’s café went above and beyond recently for a patient with multiple food allergies.
Ali Skrabut, café manager, heard concerns from caregivers from three different departments about a patient who refused to eat because of her allergies. Ali quickly went to meet the patient and address her concerns.
“She was visually upset, almost in tears, and extremely anxious about how the food was prepared and if it would be safe for her to eat,” Ali says.
The patient has multiple allergies, grinds her own flour at home, and only eats from her neighbor’s vegetable garden. Despite Ali’s efforts to provide more information, the patient was uncomfortable with the hospital’s food. Then the woman asked for an unusual request.
“She brought a little baggie full of flour with her to the hospital and asked if we could prepare pancakes for her using her flour,” Ali says.
Ali immediately sought permission for the café to accommodate the request. The nurses on the Med-Surg unit created a label for the flour so they could bring it into the kitchen to keep it separated from the rest of the ingredients. Many extra steps and protocols had to be followed — the kitchen is typically not allowed outside ingredients because of all the risk factors it can present.
With permission granted, the café team prepared the pancakes according to the patient’s recipe. Caregivers took extra precautions to keep the patient’s pancakes separate from the rest of the in-house ingredients. They used fresh dishes and pans for the pancakes and sanitized them afterward.
When Ali took the pancakes up to the patient, she was relieved to see the patient felt comfortable eating. She also didn’t know if the patient would prefer butter or margarine and what kind of syrup she would prefer. Ali gave her all the different products they had, including the ingredients list and options to choose from for her to feel comfortable eating. She ended up choosing 100% pure maple syrup.
Tami Yoga was the cook who prepared the pancakes. The patient only provided a small amount of flour, giving Tami about one cup to work with and a vague recipe. The café staff was nervous since they didn’t have enough ingredients to try multiple recipes. But the patient refused all other food, so they knew they had to get it right the first time.
Ali says Tami deserves recognition for being able to create such an incredible meal for the patient.
“She created some very nice pancakes,” Ali says.