Food Pharmacy

By Hannah Lambalot | Categories: | Comments Off on Food Pharmacy

The Food Pharmacy originally began as a food pantry, but like most essential hospitals this meant the demand may outstrip the NGH Foundation’s funding resources to maintain the program. Hence, Nashville General Hospital focuses on patients with food insecurity who also have a diagnosis of chronic illness or cancer. The goal is to provide prescribed food supplementation to the patient’s diet which offers education for long term food choices for chronic illness self-management or completion of infusion services.

Patients are identified through the emergency department, outpatient clinic, inpatient dismissal or oncology infusion services. The NGH Foundation is currently funding all of the food, staffing needs, and recruiting community volunteers through grants. The hospital is providing in-kind, the Food Pharmacy square footage, care management team members for some education, dietary staff oversight, and the infrastructure of the referral departments to recommend patients.

The program relies on patient flow from the emergency department, outpatient, inpatient, and oncology.  Additionally, patient outcomes for diabetes, hypertension, and oncology compliance with the Food Pharmacy are tracked through clinics and oncology. External community partners provide food, volunteers and funds.

Early results for oncology patients using the Food Pharmacy for the past three years reveal 100% of patients on the program maintaining or gaining weight – preventing pause in chemo services due to toxicity. Outcomes for chronically ill patients is still too new to offer reliable data until January 2020.