MD perspective: Whenever possible I always tell patients (and write an order) that it’s ok for family to bring outside food. Most of the stuff we do isn’t so terribly precise that when you’re allowed to eat the precise quantity or quality of what you’re eating is going to dramatically change our plan. That implies a degree of precision we frankly don’t have.
Obviously there are many exceptions: Surgeries, diagnostic procedures, difficulties with swallowing, malnutrition, etc. There are some liability issues to allowing patients to eat whatever they like. However, I am totally fine with family feeding their 90-year-old grandmother with swallowing trouble her favorite food, provided they understand (and I’ve documented) that she may choke on it and possibly deteriorate or die.
But you know, we all die of something, and the hospital’s job isn’t always to eliminate every last potential risk factor, no matter what our lawyers say. On the few occasions I’ve been admitted as a patient myself, I’ve ordered takeout.
TL;DR: Hospitals aren’t prisons. Give both some of the autonomy and risk back to the patient, and give Grandma her homemade meatloaf.
