The Power of Nutrition Podcast · Abbott Nutrition Health Institute

Best Practices for Establishing a Dedicated Human Milk and Formula Preparation Room in Your Hospital

·27 min·1 clip

Time studies showed nurses spent multiple feed-prep steps each day, taking bedside time away.

Ashley Bronston opens by framing infant nutrition in the hospital as a core part of care, especially for fragile babies in the NICU. She lays out the central problem: feeding hospitalized infants with human milk and formula is complex, and mistakes can carry serious consequences. Chrissy Spade joins as the guest expert. She is a clinical nutrition manager at Pennsylvania Hospital, part of Penn Medicine, and recently led the team that pioneered a dedicated human milk and formula preparation room at her institution. The discussion makes clear that the room is more than a physical space. It is also a set of policies, procedures, and staffing decisions. A dedicated area staffed by trained personnel can improve safety, accuracy, and consistency when handling human milk and formulas. The room design begins with workflow. The layout should support a clean-to-dirty flow and cut clutter wherever possible. Stainless steel work surfaces are called out as essential for mixing. Larger operations may need more than one surface or a large central island. Handwashing and dishwashing sinks must be placed carefully, with attention to regulations and the risk of splash contamination. Storage should be planned so clean surfaces stay uncluttered. Refrigeration and freezer capacity are treated as nonnegotiable. The team needs enough space for milk bins, donor milk, and any separate storage that different products require. Accessibility matters as much as capacity. Staff should not have to make unnecessary steps back and forth between prep stations and cold storage. The episode also treats cleanup as a training issue. Personnel working in the prep room need to understand that keeping the space clean is part of the job, and this should be built into training and competencies. Infection prevention teams should be involved in selecting cleaners and shaping cleaning protocols. The conversation keeps returning to the idea that safety depends on disciplined routines. It also acknowledges that implementation may take multiple steps or revisions. Even so, the message stays steady: dedicated central milk prep is best practice for vulnerable infants, and hospitals should keep working until they make it work. The episode closes by directing listeners to Abbott Nutrition Health Institute education resources.

As heard by us

A practical look at safer hospital milk prep workflows.

The episode treats hospital infant feeding as the operational job it is: one where contamination, prep mistakes, misadministration, and the day-to-day logistics of handling human milk and formula all sit close together.

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Why you'd press play

You want a clear case for dedicated hospital milk prep space.

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