From reading the abstract you are completely mischaracterizing this study.

For the average person healthy food usually means food with fewer calories and more micro-nutrients, like eating more broccoli and less white bread.

This study is about malnourished patients who need more calories than they can even digest from an average meal so they need specialized high-calorie foods that are customized for their own metabolism. It's essentially exactly the opposite of what "healthy food" means in any other context.

So it has nothing to do with any narrative about cost cutting and the quality of ingredients used in hospital cafeterias.