Trust but Verify: "Gluten-free" Hospital Meals May Not Be Gluten-free

Great article, yet another aspect of being gluten free I had not considered. My wife, who is gluten free, has pretty much taken to bringing her own food with here, wherever she goes. Thankfully we have not had to deal with a hospital stay!

When I was in the hospital for abdominal surgery, they knew I had a gluten allergy but yet, they could not tell me if any of the medications they were planning to give me were gluten free.

My first meal after surgery consisted of toast and cream of wheat.

I checked myself out of the hospital immediately.

Funny, this article was posted on Health Canada's gluten-free link on Friday too and I responded to Lance on that posting. I live in Canada too but on the West Coast in Vancouver and I really think this issue has to do with the length of your hospital stay. Being in the hospital for a month at a time several times now I have had no problems. I get very plain gluten free meals like boiled eggs, broiled chicken, rice, steamed veggies, Ener-G food bread - does not go down well not toasted but it is safer being sent not toasted, cheddar cheese slices, vegetable sticks, etc and I have had no problems. In one smaller specialty hospital (UBC)that has a higher incidence of people on a gluten free diet or they try people on a gluten free diet on the group of wards I was on, they even make Gluten-free Casein-free muffins twice a week.

I am tired of seeing posts from people making negative comments about hospitals when there over night or for one or two meals and they do not get a gluten free meal. It takes a day or two to get into the system. You cannot get gluten free meals in the ER. You DO have to come prepared however if you end up in a hospital in an emergency and onto a ward you can just request items like rice, steamed veggies etc. while your gluten free request is making its way through the system. The dietitians do meet with you if you are a long stay patient and they work with you on your meal - such as I wanted more real fruit rather than canned fruit and I was able to get that. The hospitals were Vancouver General Hospital and University of BC Hospital.

When I was in the hospital for abdominal surgery, they knew I had a gluten allergy but yet, they could not tell me if any of the medications they were planning to give me were gluten free.

 

My first meal after surgery consisted of toast and cream of wheat.

 

I checked myself out of the hospital immediately.

Last I checked, which was 2 days ago as I am writing an article for our Chapter newsletter, in Canada there are only 6 medications that are listed in the Pharmacy book that are NOT gluten free. All other medications, which a good portion come from the USA, are gluten free. The list of gluten-free manufacturers in the Pharmacy Book is pretty long - way longer than the list of lactose free manufacturers. The pharmacist from glutenfreedrugs.com spoke at the recent Canadian Celiac Association National Conference in June/2010 and he confirmed the same information with regards to how many medications are not gluten free anymore - very, very, very few. All IV's are gluten free as they do not go into your intestines. As I said in my other post - it is very common for your first meal to be incorrect as you had not been ordering gluten free meals - it takes about 1 day at least in the meal system (1 full day cycle) to start getting correct meals.

I recently stayed overnight in a hospital (Riverbend, Springfield OR) and they had a separate gluten free menu. It was nice to see that they had dedicated the time to research and provide a clear menu of gluten free foods. It was one less thing I had to think about.

Funny, this article was posted on Health Canada's gluten-free link on Friday too and I responded to Lance on that posting. I live in Canada too but on the West Coast in Vancouver and I really think this issue has to do with the length of your hospital stay. Being in the hospital for a month at a time several times now I have had no problems. I get very plain gluten free meals like boiled eggs, broiled chicken, rice, steamed veggies, Ener-G food bread - does not go down well not toasted but it is safer being sent not toasted, cheddar cheese slices, vegetable sticks, etc and I have had no problems. In one smaller specialty hospital (UBC)that has a higher incidence of people on a gluten free diet or they try people on a gluten free diet on the group of wards I was on, they even make Gluten-free Casein-free muffins twice a week.

I am tired of seeing posts from people making negative comments about hospitals when there over night or for one or two meals and they do not get a gluten free meal. It takes a day or two to get into the system. You cannot get gluten free meals in the ER. You DO have to come prepared however if you end up in a hospital in an emergency and onto a ward you can just request items like rice, steamed veggies etc. while your gluten free request is making its way through the system. The dietitians do meet with you if you are a long stay patient and they work with you on your meal - such as I wanted more real fruit rather than canned fruit and I was able to get that. The hospitals were Vancouver General Hospital and University of BC Hospital.

Absolutely, Lynda. It's completely unacceptable that in a health care setting, one should expect a medically safe meal if they're only hospitalized for a day or so. In fact, I think diabetics should be given high-glycemic index, sugary meals and people on a kidney diet be given regular potassium, high-protein meals. Heart patients should get burgers. If you can't eat what everyone else is eating, then you should either get sicker or not eat. Sounds fair to me.

I was hospitalized five years ago in California. In addition to having Celiac Disease, I have multiple, serious food allergies. I nearly starved, quite literally, during my five day stay. The dietician told me I should have someone bring me food if I wanted safe food to eat, and I had no family to do that.

Frankly, I'm sick of even those with Celiac Disease themselves thinking they shouldn't be entitled to the same consideration that anyone else with a serious illness would get. Negative? After nearly starving in the hospital after a very traumatic surgery, you bet! I should add that they also served me some fish covered in something I'm allergic to, and then lied to me about what it was. The nurse told me that it had come out of the package like that, so it must be plain. I doubt anyone even had read the label.

Agreed 100% My type 1 diabetic & celiac daughter had two trips to the ER/hospital this summer and when we inquired about whether they understood gluten free eating, the response was as follows (and with confused looks from all with whom I spoke): "We'll try to make it as gluten free as possible" and THAT didn't inspire a whole lot of trust on my end so I brought ALL her food from home! They really do NOT get gluten free eating and these are supposedly top hospitals! Shame on them!

While my wife was in recovery from knee surgery, she was given Kellogg's Rice Crispies for breakfast. When questioned, she was told that "Rice is gluten free". She asked that they read the ingredients list and they were surprised.

Both my husband and I have celiac disease. He had outpatient back surgery a couple of years ago and was required to eat something before they would release him the same day. After checking their menu, there was only 1 item on it that I could be sure was gluten-free - a fresh fruit plate. When I first asked the nurses what was available that was gluten-free for him, they didn't know what I was talking about. This is just scary, not to mention totally unacceptable and dangerous. What if it was a severe allergy..... would they be so casual about the possibility of inducing an anaphylactic reaction?

I was hospitalized for 28 days iin 2009. During my 3 1/2 week stay in ICU, I received foods that were not gluten free 4 times. Luckily, my husband was keeping a sharp eye out for errors in the diet, and I didn't eat anything that made me sick. The dietitian said, "I'm more embarrassed than I can even say." But dietitians are not in the hospital kitchens and are not able to supervise meal and tray preparation. Many kitchen employees don't even speak English and don't know what gluten is. I would advise any person with celiac disease or allergy to gluten to question any hospital meal that is not clearly gluten free.

Funny, this article was posted on Health Canada's gluten-free link on Friday too and I responded to Lance on that posting. I live in Canada too but on the West Coast in Vancouver and I really think this issue has to do with the length of your hospital stay. Being in the hospital for a month at a time several times now I have had no problems. I get very plain gluten free meals like boiled eggs, broiled chicken, rice, steamed veggies, Ener-G food bread - does not go down well not toasted but it is safer being sent not toasted, cheddar cheese slices, vegetable sticks, etc and I have had no problems. In one smaller specialty hospital (UBC)that has a higher incidence of people on a gluten free diet or they try people on a gluten free diet on the group of wards I was on, they even make Gluten-free Casein-free muffins twice a week.

I am tired of seeing posts from people making negative comments about hospitals when there over night or for one or two meals and they do not get a gluten free meal. It takes a day or two to get into the system. You cannot get gluten free meals in the ER. You DO have to come prepared however if you end up in a hospital in an emergency and onto a ward you can just request items like rice, steamed veggies etc. while your gluten free request is making its way through the system. The dietitians do meet with you if you are a long stay patient and they work with you on your meal - such as I wanted more real fruit rather than canned fruit and I was able to get that. The hospitals were Vancouver General Hospital and University of BC Hospital.

I worked at a hospital [part of the Mayo health system] for a couple of years after I was diagnosed with celiac disease and finally quit a great job in disgust. I could not get a gluten free meal there or the trauma hospital [also associated with Mayo] that is 30 miles away, still can't. Even the hospital dietitian told me that she "couldn't help me, my diet was way too complicated." There is NO excuse for a hospital to not provide gluten free meals when I can safely eat at Outback steakhouse. The waitresses there know more than medical staff!

The day that I was diagnosed with celiacs (via an endoscopy) the nurses in the ambulatory surgery center gave me juice and crackers to recover from the sedative!! I knew nothing yet about what I could have but became sick on the way home and had to return to the hospital. And when I had a cervical fusion done three years later, the nurses aid came in and offered me crackers! They don't pay attention. We have to be our own advocates. Make sure you tell your family members to make sure your meals are double checked also.