HOSPITAL DUKE m BTffi VOL. 4, NO. 8 JUNE, 1958 DURHAM, N. C. DIETETICS Science and Art Wluit is the function of a hosi)ital dietetics department? Miss Esther Ratliff, Director of the Department of Dietetics at the Duke T'niversity Med ical Center, answers this iuestion: “The first consideration is to nu>et the nutritional needs of the patients, including modifications of noriiial diets, and to meet the nutritional needs of the staff and personnel.” Traushited into how nuniy ])laces to set at tlu‘ table, this means over 1500 meals ]ier day for patients and an other 1500 (breakfast, liuich, dinner and midnirht lunch) to be served in tiie Stair Dininr Room and the Em- ])loyees’ Dininr Room—a ■jrand total of a])proximately 100,000 meals a month. For an average morninfj’s breakfast 150 dozen e}?^rs are re(pusi- tioiu'd. When hamburgers are on the menu for the entire house it takes 400 pounds of rround beef. One hundred and ten fryers must be cut up to pro vide fried chicken for the staff cafe teria alone. The cooks will use 250 l)onnds of potatoes for a noon meal. The bake sho]> will bake 155 blueberry ])ies (for patients) and 15 blueberry cobblers, 45 servinfrs each, (for cafe terias) for an evening meal. This re- ({uires four :30-pound cans of frozen blueberries. When baked sliced tur key is served at Simday dinner, it takes twenty-five 25-pound turkeys (()25 pounds of turkey). The dietitian’s work is many facet ed : menu-making and food purchas ing which involves food specifications Duke Photo by Spark.s THE DIETETICS STAFF panel-tests a loaf of salt-free bread. Left to right: Mary Catherine Male, Dorothy Falcone, Helen McLachlan, Esther Ratliff, Margaret Ann Brown, Margaret Presley, Shirley Manning, Barbara Raby, Nancy Curtis. and recjuisitioning; planning layouts and purchasing equipment for food areas; sanitation in all food areas; personnel management and employee training—the Duke Department of Dietetics has a staff of 8 and over 190 emj)loy('('s. In addition to these phases of the work which relate directly to the preparation of food, a department of dietetics affiliated with a teaching institution, itself nuist carry a size able teaching load. In Duke Hospital one-third of the ])atients are on modified diets. The Department of Dietetics is engaged in the ])re])aration of a new diet manual. Selective menus are now in use on all private patient floors. Presented on the breakfast tray, the selective meini carries the choices for the fol lowing day’s lunch and dinner and for breakfast the morning after that. This allows adequate time for recpusi- tioning of necessary foods. Plans are underway for opening the Ambula tory Cafeteria on the third floor of the new wing. This cafeteria will ac commodate 90 patients. The tray as sembly belt on the second floor of the new wing now serves Hanes, Minot, Reed and Cushing wards—approxi mately 1()0 trays. This belt is flanked on one side by containers for hot food and on the other by refrigerators for cold food. A tray can be assembled in one and one half minutes. Trays for the second floor are delivered on rolling carts which will carry six trays each. Those for the third floor move automatically off the tray as sembly belt onto a belt which places them in a vertical Trayveyor to be carried to the third floor. Soiled travs and dishes are sent down on