Sample Hospital Dietaries Dietary Of The New York Hospital

"All patients shall be furnished the regular house diet, unless otherwise specially directed by the attending physician or surgeon. As a substitute for the house diet, there may be furnished, on the order of the attending physician or surgeon only, either of the following:

"1. Restricted diet.

"2. Milk diet.

"The attending physician or surgeon shall specify, on the occasion of his first visit to a patient, which diet shall be furnished. This duty may not be delegated to the house physician or house surgeon, except that, on the admission of a patient to a ward, it shall be the duty of either to give instruction on the subject to the nurse in charge, and such instruction shall be followed until the first visit of the attending physician or surgeon.

"The wards shall be supplied with blanks, called diet lists. The head nurse shall carry one of these with her regularly when accompanying the attending physician or surgeon on his visits, and shall note down carefully all his instructions as to diet; he shall sign these lists before leaving the ward.

"Milk diet, or restricted diet, may not be ordered in addition to the regular house diet, but only as a substitute therefor, but the attending physician or surgeon may order items of special diet in particular cases.

"Lists defining the different classes of diet shall be furnished each attending physician and surgeon.

"Cards, appropriately inscribed, shall be placed at the head of each bed, which shall designate the class of diet, and also the amount of stimulant, which is furnished each patient.

"A diet kitchen is established, under the direction and control of the directress of nurses, wherein articles of special diet shall be prepared and served as ordered.

Daily House Diet

Breakfast

Oatmeal or hominy; tea or coffee, with milk and sugar; bread and butter.

Dinner

Potatoes; bread and butter; one or more of the following vegetables: turnips, sweet potatoes, beets, spinach, squash.

Supper

Tea with milk and sugar; bread and butter; stewed or fresh fruit.

In Addition. On Sunday

Breakfast: eggs. Dinner: roast beef, cornstarch pudding.

Monday

Breakfast: baked potatoes. Dinner: stock soup, stewed beef or mutton, rice pudding.

Tuesday

Breakfast: mutton chops. Dinner: pea soup, roast mutton, bread pudding.

Wednesday

Breakfast: fried or stewed potatoes. Dinner: roast beef, cornstarch pudding.

Thursday

Breakfast: eggs. Dinner: stock soup, stewed beef or mutton, tapioca pudding.

Friday

Breakfast: salt mackerel or codfish. Dinner: bean soup, baked fish, beans, rice pudding.

Saturday

Breakfast: beefsteak, Dinner: corned beef, cabbage, bread pudding.

Restricted Diet

Breakfast

Tea or coffee (with milk and sugar), farinaceous food (with milk), eggs.

Dinner

Soup; either of the following: raw oysters, roast beef, steak, chicken with vegetables, pudding (bread, rice, tapioca, or cornstarch).

Supper

Tea (with milk and sugar), bread (with butter), fruit (fresh or dried).

Milk Diet

"Six pints of milk daily.

Articles Of Special Diet

"Milk, eggs, beef tea, oysters, cornstarch, chops, steak, chicken, chicken soup, rice, broth, farina, ice cream, as ordered by the attending physician or surgeon.

"Salt fish, jellies, custards, gruels".

At the New York Hospital a carefully graduated diet list, made out in ounces per capita, was formerly in use, but it was found both unnecessary and unpractical. Separate tables are laid for the patients, nurses, and servants; but the amount of food is estimated in a general way, the terms being based rather upon the cost price per capita than upon the number of ounces, and it is proportioned by the housekeeper and her assistants with due regard to economy.