Top U.S. hospitals by cafeteria costs

Hospital cafeteria costs are a supply expense and include spending on hospital food service vendors and the cost of preparing food for employees, physicians and hospital visitors.

How much do hospitals spend on cafeteria costs each year?

The Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product tracks cafeteria costs for 566 hospitals. Analyzing this data shows that hospitals in the U.S. spent $1.6 million on average in cafeteria costs for 2020.

This table lists hospitals by the highest cafeteria costs. This metric is updated annually from Medicare Cost Report data.

Top 20 U.S. hospitals with the highest cafeteria costs

Rank	Definitive ID	Hospital Name	Location	Number of staffed beds	Cafeteria costs
1	2191	Mayo Clinic Hospital – Saint Mary’s Campus	Rochester, MN	1111	$37,761,110
2	4017	University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Houston, TX	739	$17,830,505
3	873	AdventHealth Orlando	Orlando, FL	2247	$15,376,533
4	3042	WakeMed Raleigh Campus	Raleigh, NC	586	$14,997,641
5	588	Stanford Hospital	Stanford, CA	554	$14,985,818
6	4021	CHI St Luke’s Health – Baylor St Luke’s Medical Center	Houston, TX	628	$11,880,481
7	5576	Cincinnati Children Burnet Campus	Cincinnati, OH	623	$10,718,399
8	3124	University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center	Cleveland, OH	638	$10,186,629
9	1979	Boston Children’s Hospital	Boston, MA	415	$9,565,130
10	4366	Seattle Children’s Hospital	Seattle, WA	357	$9,070,256
11	2693	UC San Diego Medical Center	San Diego, CA	381	$9,027,871
12	2650	Children’s Hospital Los Angeles	Los Angeles, CA	413	$8,784,222
13	71	UAB Hospital	Birmingham, AL	1129	$8,614,740
14	3439	UPMC Presbyterian	Pittsburg, PA	1146	$8,608,971
15	3549	Jefferson Abington Hospital	Abington, PA	588	$8,559,818
16	3572	Thomas Jefferson University Hospital	Philadelphia, PA	854	$8,173,199
17	3519	Lancaster General Hospital	Lancaster, PA	620	$8,140,598
18	2843	Tisch Hospital	New York, NY	725	$7,946,457
19	2678	University of Utah Hospital	Salt Lake, UT	472	$7,845,916
20	519	Loma Linda University Hospital	Loma Linda, CA	315	$7,762,100

Fig. 1 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product and sourced from the Medicare Cost Report. Data accurate as of June 2022.

Which hospital in the U.S. has the highest cafeteria costs?

Mayo Clinic Hospital – Saint Mary’s Campus has the highest cafeteria costs among hospitals in the U.S. at nearly $38 million. Four additional hospitals on the list spent more than $14 million on cafeteria costs in 2020: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ($17.8 million), AdventHealth Orlando ($15.3 million), WakeMed Raleigh Campus ($14.9 million) and Stanford Hospital ($14.9 million).

While Mayo Clinic Hospital and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are not the largest hospitals on the list by bed size – that would be AdventHealth Orlando – their higher cafeteria costs may be associated with their patients’ longer lengths of stay and case complexity. The patients and their visitors may be on the hospital campus for more days or longer days and then more frequently utilizing the hospital food services.

The average cafeteria costs for the top 20 hospitals on the list is $11.7 million. Four of the hospitals are in California and four are in Pennsylvania. Sixteen are academic medical centers and four are also children’s hospitals.

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