This interview with Morrison Healthcare CEO Avi Pinto originally appeared on Investment Reports and is republished here with permission. The original publication has been designated as the canonical source.
Nutrition has traditionally been treated as a supporting hospital service. How is its role changing in clinical care, particularly around malnutrition?
From a clinical perspective, we are transforming on multiple fronts. One is better integration among food-service dietitians, physicians and culinary teams to create a coordinated care model. Malnutrition has historically been underdiagnosed, even though it can have a huge impact on recovery, complications, length of stay and readmissions. The more we collaborate, the earlier we can identify at-risk patients, create individualized nutrition plans and improve outcomes. Nutrition data should be part of the broader clinical picture, allowing providers to better monitor outcomes and prioritize high-risk patients.
We use data and screening tools to identify those patients, with emerging AI software helping provide an early indication via consumption data. Our My Malnutrition Tool supports dietitian-led intervention across the care pathway. In hospitals where it has been implemented, 30-day readmissions among at-risk patients are more than 70% lower than the national average. As we go further with data and outcomes, nutrition care will become an even greater priority.
What role should hospitals and food-service providers play in improving nutrition beyond the hospital stay?
A huge role. It is very difficult to change a patient’s eating behavior during an average hospital stay of two to four days, so the answer is a combination of education and post-discharge nutrition care. We have pilot programs offering medically tailored or post-discharge meals to certain patient populations. A physician can prescribe meals for someone facing food insecurity or lacking access to healthy food, and those meals are sent to the patient’s home for as long as the prescription remains effective.
The broader opportunity is population health. Our chefs can work with clinicians, dietitians and physicians through teaching kitchens and community education on high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Health systems can also support food pantries and mobile grocery stores in food deserts.
Morrison’s Nutrition AI uses computer vision to verify meals before they reach patients. What problem was it designed to solve, and what results are you seeing?
Historically, the industry has relied on a manual process to check whether what a patient ordered matched what was delivered. Errors can create safety concerns, particularly around allergens or foods a patient should not receive. Working with Nuvilab and our internal technology development partners, we developed an AI tool that uses visual learning to compare the tray with the patient’s order, checking accuracy, allergens and other safety concerns while reducing the potential for human error. Though for high-risk allergen diets, we continue to also implement our additional checks for safety.
There is also an efficiency gain through greater timeliness, which affects patient satisfaction and quality outcomes such as temperature and taste.
How do you offer meals that are personalized, culturally relevant and appealing while meeting clinical requirements, including for pediatric patients?
The dining experience has become an important extension of hospitality, healing and patient-centered care. Our scale gives us substantial data – we serve more than 1,000 hospitals and analyze millions of patient meal selections and dining preferences to better understand what patients and guests want. We also draw on broader retail dining trends to better understand changing tastes and regional preferences, helping us deliver meals that feel both familiar and clinically appropriate. We use those analytics, together with our culinary and nutrition teams, to create regionalized menus for specific geographies and patient demographics. For example, we’ve reimagined our patient menus with restaurant-quality, chef-inspired offerings, while still meeting clinical requirements for patients. Also, our MyMeal app gives patients more control over what they order and when they receive it, while limiting choices to the requirements of the diet prescribed by their physician.
Our pediatric program applies the same principle by age group. Toddlers who may not be able to read receive picture menus and finger foods designed to be easy to pick up. Preteens receive relatable menu items and appropriate portions, while teenagers have more sophisticated options suited to their age and palate. Food is often one of the most memorable parts of a patient’s stay, and by creating moments of joy and offering comforting, nutritious and delicious meals, we are not just nourishing our youngest patients but also helping to uplift their spirits and support their families. We believe a positive dining experience is an integral part of the healing process.
Morrison began as a restaurant company. How did it move into hospital food service?
Like most things, it happened organically. Morrison began as a restaurant company more than 100 years ago. Around 70 years ago, a healthcare leader who was one of our restaurant customers wanted to change the perception of hospital food and make it more like what patients ate outside the hospital. That led to our first healthcare client, Candler Hospital, which remains a partner of ours more than 70 years later. Our mission has been not only to change the perception of hospital food, but the role food can play in care and healing.
How are workforce and financial pressures affecting patient dining, and where can technology help?
Being a people-first organization guides what we do, from benefits and wellness resources to career development and recognition. In healthcare support services, our work is purpose-driven and nothing happens without our team members. This work can be demanding, so we focus on flexibility, resources and compassionate support for our team members.
Hospitals are also under immense financial pressure from regulatory and reimbursement changes. We are expected to reduce costs and improve outcomes at the same time. Nutrition AI can improve efficiency and safety; frictionless retail and self-checkouts can reduce operating costs; and malnutrition programs can help hospitals identify diagnoses accurately and reduce readmissions. We were also the first to implement Amazon Just Walk Out technology in healthcare, providing 24-hour retail access for third-shift clinicians. Beyond enhancing operations, we are using technology to make work easier for our frontline teams by streamlining workflows and giving associates more time to focus on patient service and hospitality.
What longstanding issue in hospital nutrition still needs to be addressed?
Diet liberalization is one of the major issues. There is a dichotomy between physicians who want a highly restrictive diet for their patients and what will produce sustainable outcomes over the longer term. A patient may follow an extremely restrictive diet for three days in the hospital, and medications may be titrated to those nutritional requirements. But if that patient is not properly educated or does not change their behavior after leaving, the medication’s efficacy drops and readmission risk rises.
Therefore, our focus is on making better clinical outcomes sustainable for the patient, rather than looking at nutrition only from the physician’s perspective during the hospital stay.