Software innovations have allowed the retail food and patient meal service operations in hospitals to increase dining options for staff, visitors and patients, but at the Crosstown Café, at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Minnesota, technology has created a special relationship between food service staff and the populations they serve. In the recently-renovated café, diners will find familiar fare like pizza, build-your-own deli, entrée and made-to-order grill stations along with a salad bar and rotating menu stations with dishes like pasta, stir-fry and tacos. Alongside these delicious, high-quality choices, diners will also notice signs and table tents that bear black-and-white Quick-Response, or QR codes that can be accessed with a cell phone. Hospitals that implement these codes connect food service customers with staff, alerting them of food quality issues, as minor as running out of a condiment, or an issue with food quality that could have lead to a potentially disappointed patron. Customers using the codes can alert staff of areas that need attention or make suggestions, like using more environmentally-sustainable disposable tableware in the dining operation or starting a composting program for vegetable waste generated in hospital kitchens. As hospitals incorporate a healthier dining platform, using QR codes allows real-time communication with diners and quick response to service issue that may arise. Patients who are given greater control over meals during their hospital stay report higher rates of satisfaction and have improved nutritional outcomes.
Technology, like QR codes, and dietary office software, can support your location’s goals for improving the quality and efficiency of your food service operation. Fairview Southdale Hospital is enjoying the successful incorporation of technology and hopes to extend its successful QR code program to the patient meal service aspect of their food service operation, enhancing the room service ordering platform that is currently in place. Patient room service operates as an on-demand meal system that lets patients choose the delivery time and contents of their meal. Because patients order through a call center, they have access to a member of your hospitality team who can take them through menu selections, offering substitutions and add patient requests.
Vision Software is the leading provider of healthcare web-based food service solutions in the world. For more than thirty years, we have been serving the hospital food service industry with feature-rich software applications to streamline every aspect of retail food and patient meal services. Call 629.777.8989 or fill in the free consultation form in the sidebar to learn more about our easy-to-implement, powerful software solutions and the extraordinary customer support that you can expect from Vision Software.