HOUSTON — The menu includes pork or chicken dumplings, fried rice or chicken congee soup with jasmine rice and ginger. It’s an enviable repast that diners take in bed — hospital beds.

When it comes to ordering meals at Houston’s Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, immigrant patients can choose from dishes similar to what they might eat at home: dumplings or noodles for Asian palates, curry to accommodate Indian tastes.

These and other choices at medical facilities nationwide reflect intense competition to attract one of health care’s most desirable demographics — affluent, foreign-born patients with generous insurance coverage or cash to pay out of pocket.

The menu is just part of the outreach. The Houston hospital also has redecorated patient rooms, subscribed to foreign-language TV channels and even changed the color of hospital paperwork to reflect cultural preferences.

Hospitals “are recognizing that they have to begin to gear their services and products toward more minority populations,” said Rick DeFilippi, chairman of the board for the Institute for Diversity in Health Management, a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association.