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VOLUME 23, NUMBER 14
APRIL 9,1976
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Food Services - The Other Professionals
Dietary Department Uses Variety of Skills
By Ina Fried
Roscoe Graham came to Duke in
1940 to work a couple of months
during the off-season at the tobacco
factory. He’s been here ever since.
Roscoe is one of the 208 employees of
the Dietary Department in the
hospital.
Staff, visitors and patients see the
final product of the department —
the food — but they probably don’t
realize how many different kinds of
skills are involved in producing that
food.
A patient’s meal begins with
Communications Control, where
information is received from the
Medi-Data computer system, giving
the physician’s orders for each
patient.
First Hospital Meal
A diet assistant uses that
information to plan the patient’s first
hospital meal, explained Parker Lee
McDonald, a diet assistant for about
five years.
A dietitian then develops a pattern
card based on the doctor’s orders and
the patient’s preferences. The diet
assistant follows this pattern in
planning specific menus for the
patient.
Parker Lee, known as “Gramps” by
staff and patients alike, has worked in
most areas of food services since she
came to Duke in 1941. She took an
inservice education course to train as
a diet assistant and is currently
enrolled in a course on nutrition.
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QUICK WO/Wf—Lugenia Jenkins, supervisor in Tray Unit 2,
quickly straightens dishes and inspects patient trays as they
move by her on the assembly line. If ever^hing is in order, the
trays go on the truck for delivery to patients. If not, the tray is
put on the counter by the coffee machine to be completed.
(Photo by Sally Herndon)
“I’m not a great cook,” she said,
“but I enjoy fixing food for other
people.”
Over 1 Million Served
Based on patient orders and
predictions of cafteria demand, food
is ordered five days a week. The
average housewife planning three
meals a day for her family might be
overwhelmed by the department’s
quantities. In a year about 682,000
patient meals are served, and
1,648,000 persons go through the
cafeteria and Ambulatory Dining
Room (ADR).
Hamburgers are among the most
popular food items, with 34,000
pounds of hamburger meat, 26,000
dozen hamburger buns, and 48,000
pounds of French fries used each
year. Eggs — about 64,000 dozen of
them —are another major food item.
From the dietary storeroom, food
goes to the kitchen for preparation.
Minnie Petty arrives at work at 5
a.m. to bake cakes, cookies, salt-free
bread and dinner rolls for the day.
When she started work in food
services 27 years ago, she did relief
work in many different areas of the
department. She’s been baking for
about 16 years and says coconut and
pineapple cakes are her favorites.
Others in the kitchen prepare
meats, salads, vegetables, and
sandwiches. The prepared food then
goes either to the cafeteria and ADR
serving lines or to the tray assembly
area for patients.
Quick and Accurate
In the tray assembly area each tray
(Continued on page 2)
Artery Grafts in Monkeys
Help Doctors Help Humans
HEART PATIENT—One of the Rhesus monkeys Uking part in the coronary artery vein
graft research project under way at the medical center poses for the photographer.
The operation he will undergo will be similar to the one done in humans.
By Charles Young
In some instances, the monkey
rather than the dog may be man’s
best friend.
Witness the circumstances
surrounding a research project here,
in which doctors are trying to find
solutions to problems of people
suffering from coronary artery
disease.
Over the past three years dogs
have served as the principal
experimental animals in the study,
undergoing open heart surgery and a
multitude of related tests in an effort
to provide information that doctors
could apply to humans.
Now the doctors are turning to
monkeys, because their arteries and
veins more closely resemble those of
man,
Supported by a four-year,
$366,000 grant from the National
Institutes of Health, the project will
involve combined research in
biochemistry, pathology and surgery.
“With monkeys we're getting about
as close (to humans) as it's possible to
gel in an animal preparation," says
Dr. Per-Otto Hagen, associate
professor in the Department of
Surgery and chief investigator in the
research project.
Coronary artery bypass — a
surgical procedure in which a
segment of vein is grafted as a
substitute conductor of blood around
a narrowed portion of the coronary
artery — is the f(Kal point of the
study.
In such a malfunction, the natural
blood flow is inhibited, and the result
is intense pain in the heart region.
The narrowing of the coronary
artery is caused by an accumulation
of fatty material on the interior wall.
Part of the study is designed to
determine whether this buildup can
be identified as a characteristic
(Continuedoii page 4)