When acute care hospitals and long-term care facilities automate their food service operations, the increased productivity allows for growth and change in exciting new ways. New trends in dining include expanded vegetarian menu selections, specially-designed menus with a focus on dining spaces and artfully prepared pureed foods for patients with special dietary needs.
Diet offices that have implemented patient menu checking software can safely promote vegetarian options for patients who express an interest in trying healthier options, and for those who specifically request a plant-based meal. Health systems who have embraced this trend, like Lee Health System in Florida, strive to challenge chefs to create enticing new dishes that can be incorporated into menus that provide patients and customers of in-house retail food operations with appetizing dishes that meet nutritional standards and present vegetables in unexpected and delicious ways.
For patients, visitors and staff at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) in Salt Lake City, dining spaces have been designed to show off the best of the city from a posh interior that showcases the city through the cafeteria’s sixth-floor windows. HCI invites local restaurants to offer a limited menu of selections each week, and provides a rotating selection of specialties that enhance meal service. At the Mindful Café, located in San Diego’s Sharp Coronado Hospital, the café incorporates an outdoor healing garden with growing greenery walls and a fountain. For patients whose treatments leave them with an impaired appetite, enhanced dining experiences can provide a relaxing respite and improved nutritional intake. By implementing patient menu checking software, hospitals and treatment facilities can provide greater flexibility and improved nutritional support in a comforting, patient-centered environment.
Many residents of long-term and senior care need special interventions to stay properly nourished. Those suffering from dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), Parkinson’s disease, dementia and other conditions, a puréed diet is necessary, but food often looks dramatically different from meals being served to other residents. These social differences may seem slight, but they can lead to feelings of embarrassment and isolation, and ultimately, to poor nutrient consumption. By creating menu items with the need for pureeing in mind, food service operations are incorporating ingredients that give pureed foods a more recognizable, attractive appearance while maintaining patient safety and supporting nutrient intake. Software applications that incorporate nutrient analysis software provide nutritional composition of recipes and individual items, enabling the calculation of the nutritional content of every pureed meal as well as nutrition intake of individual patients. Having the power to manage the unique nutritional needs of patients by offering safe, good-looking food improves outcomes and patient satisfaction.
At Vision Software, we bring you the latest technology in easy-to-implement software that helps you better serve the needs of patients. For more than 30 years, we have made it our mission to provide you excellent food nutrition informatics and extraordinary client support. With feature-rich software applications for every facet of your food service operation, Vision Software is ready to show you how you can increase productivity, reduce food waste and associated costs, all while dramatically increasing patient satisfaction by serving fresher, safer food to patients. Call 629.777.8989 or fill out the form in the sidebar today to learn more about our products and request a demo.