As the new Food Services Director for Winston Medical Center, Adam Joiner, would like to remind Winston County residents that the Magnolia Café, located on the WMC campus is a viable dining option which offers good food at a very reasonable price.
Magnolia Café is the retail food outlet on the WMC campus, and Joiner is employed by Morrison Healthcare which is the largest healthcare food service in the country; Morrison Healthcare is owned by Compass Group, the eighth largest employer in the world.
Joiner, who graduated from Louisville High School, took over as Food Services Director in January of this year, after having worked as a fine-dining chef in the country club industry for the past 10 years.
Joiner said that when he got ready to leave that industry and come to the healthcare industry, his peers would ask why he wanted to cook at a hospital. He said, “Everyone always said hospital food is so bad. And my reply to that is often, ‘Why?’ There is no law that says that hospital food has to be bad. And my goal would be, very simply, that.”
Joiner and his staff of 18 people are responsible for meal preparation for hospital patients, nursing home patients, Turning Point and the extended living cottages. He said, “We are taking a lot of steps to organize and train our employees to make sure that patient care is top notch. Patients always come first.”
Joiner recognizes that, in the past, there were problems, both on the retail side and patient side. He stated that things have stabilized and he has very good employees in place. Joiner added that he came back to Winston County specifically to get WMC food services running right. This being his first job in healthcare it is a learning experience for him, as well.
He added that the biggest challenge is making sure that patients get fed correctly and on time, and that their meals are nutritionally sound; and training the staff to take it to as high a level as they can. Food safety is also quite important as they are responsible for feeding a highly susceptible group of patients. Joiner stated that his goal, in serving patients, is that they receive good, well-balanced food, consistently.
Joiner added that when someone is in the hospital, that person already does not feel well, and the prospect of hospital food should not be a negative.
Joiner stated that even with the many changes that is still work to be done. He knows that food service is better than it was when he took over four months ago, and the public and patients can expect continued improvement.
