Hospital Farm Freshens Patient Experience

Starting an organic farm on campus shows a commitment to the environment and raises community awareness about the importance of healthy eating, says the president of Pennsylvania's St. Luke's Anderson campus.

Sometimes, to achieve success you have to get your hands dirty. St. Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem, PA, has taken that idiom to heart—figuratively and literally—with its thriving organic farm initiative.

In 2014, St. Luke's partnered with a local organic farming organization to create the St. Luke's Rodale Institute Organic Farm on the health system's Anderson campus. Now in its second season, the farm grows 30 different varieties of produce, which is distributed to all six of St. Luke's hospitals. The patient menu has been redesigned to incorporate the fresh produce and to increase awareness for patients when ordering their meals.

"It started with employees asking about an organic farm since we are on 500 acres and it was, and still is, farmed with conventional crops," says Ed Nawrocki, president of St. Luke's Anderson.

"We thought it would be progressive and innovative to promote the idea of having an organic farm on campus to show a commitment to the environment, to raise community awareness about the importance of healthy eating and the impact of food choices on overall health and well-being, [and] to create new knowledge related to the role of organic food in maintaining or restoring health."

Sowing Seed Money
It cost St. Luke's $120,000 to start the farm last year, about $20,000 of which was for capital investments. The current budget is in the $140,000 range, Nawrocki says. Much of the funding went to investment in infrastructure that was needed to make the farm operational in its first and second years. Key projects include:

Renovation of an old house on-site

• Indoor and outdoor washing stations
• Processing space
• Walk-in cooler

Housing for an internship program

• Renovation of old apartments on site to accommodate our farmer and up to three interns.

Hoop House

• Used to extend the growing season. The building allows for more control over temperature and water supply to produce.

Greenhouse

• New this season. The greenhouse can be used to grow seeds and to help stagger the planting and harvesting of the produce.

St. Luke's goal is to have the organic farm breakeven in year three.

Reaping Patient Experience Improvements
The farm has enhanced St. Luke's patient experience in a number of ways. The most obvious, of course, being the taste and quality of the food.

"The produce is harvested when it is ripe and not sitting in a warehouse for days," Nawrocki says. "Patients receive as much benefit as possible from this farm-to-table model. Delivery happens the same day it is harvested in many cases, and the delivery time from the farm to the hospital is in minutes."

But beyond cafeteria offerings, the farm has paved the way for several innovative programs that benefit patients and the community. The health system holds regular farmers markets and the farm has hosted several school and community groups to tour the grounds and learn about the organic farming process. And, new this season, moms delivering babies in the St. Luke's Family Birth Center receive a fresh basket of produce straight from the farm.

"The community is engaged and excited by what we are doing," Nawrocki says. "Many studies show that organic produce is better, so giving our employees, patients, and members of the community access to this produce is important. We get many positive comments from patients and the community that they love the idea and feel good about what we are doing."

Planning for Future Harvests
The favorable response from patients and the community is laying the groundwork for a high return-on-investment. The farm webpage saw a 300%increase in pageviews during the second-season launch and farm-related posts on the health system's Facebook page have some of the highest rates of engagement of all its posts. The initiative has also received a good deal of media attention and several awards and accolades.

In the farm's first year of operations, it grew more than 12% of the health system's produce. In the future, Nawrocki hopes that number will increase dramatically.

"The operational challenges are making sure we have enough produce, with variety, to use during the year to eliminate outside purchases from traditional vendors," he says. "Also, we need to extend the year so produce is harvested as long as our season allows.  The greenhouse and hoop house are allowing us to experiment with that approach.  Next season, we are hoping to harvest root vegetables into late winter."

St. Luke's is taking more steps to help achieve that goal—it added bees to the farm this year and is looking into housing chickens and planting a wildflower garden down the line.

"Our goal is to extend the harvest season as long as possible to maximize the productivity of the farm, which would then improve financial projections," Nawrocki says. "The vision for the farm is to be a national leader in demonstrating and educating how organic foods enhance the health of our community."

 

St. Luke’s Rodale Institute Organic Farm from St. Luke's on Vimeo.