Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health is removing dark-colored sodas from its hospital menus — but patients can still order "clear sodas" like Sprite and ginger ale, The News Tribune reported Dec. 15.
Seattle-based Virginia Mason Franciscan Health confirmed its parent company's menu switch to the newspaper.
"Based on CommonSpirit Health's new food and nutrition guidelines and moving forward, patient floor stock beverages now only include water, tea and coffee (caffeinated and decaf), milk (dairy and non-dairy), and juices (regular and sugar-free)," the health system told the newspaper.
Cafeterias and vending machines used by patients and staff will still serve sodas like Coke — only patients will not have access to them.
CommonSpirit is not the first health system to pull certain sodas from its hospitals, according to the newspaper. Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health, the University of California San Francisco and Dayton (Ohio) Children's Hospital are among several that had removed sugary drinks from their cafeterias by 2016.
But not all hospitals are leaving sodas behind. Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health System serves Pepsi in its hospitals, and plans to keep it that way, a media representative told the newspaper.