Benchmarking is an essential practice for healthcare administrators, whereby institutions measure performance against governmental or industry standards— or benchmarks— to establish basic standards for care. These benchmarks help ensure that resources are being used effectively and efficiently. In hospital food service operations there are prepared patient meals and a retail dining operation that serves hospital staff, visitors and walk-ins from the community. Understanding where each of these operations works well and where there are weaknesses allows hospital food service decision makers to implement changes that improve service, reduce waste, increase productivity and improve patient satisfaction. When you automate your hospital diet office and retail food service operation, look for a software suite that is easy to implement and provides you with useful tools that staff can use to measure performance, including resource allocation, cost analysis, patient nutritional status, and features that your facility can customize based on its organizational needs.
Simple, but powerful, software applications that support Patient Room Service, Tray Tracking, Food Production Control, Nutritional Assessment, Nutritional Risk Screening and Menu Checking allow your diet office and food service operations to monitor benchmarks and take control of daily operations. When you can see where food waste is happening, where service delays occur, and which patients need special nutritional intervention, changes can be implemented to improve patient nutrient intake, save money and get the best from your talented personnel. From the moment a patient tray is ordered, management can measure the number of personnel hours used in ordering, food production and delivery. Menu checking ensures that the food choices are safe for the patient—from both allergies and food-drug interactions. Tray tracking alerts the diet office when a patient is away for a procedure, so food is not lost to waste, and patients do not miss meals. Benchmarks help improve numbers in all areas of food service production while offering greater flexibility for customers and patients while you stay in compliance.
Vision Software is a full-service provider of feature-rich software applications and tools that assist food and nutrition leaders in making a difference in the lives of patients and customers through excellence in food nutrition informatics and extraordinary customer support. Our support specialists are food and nutrition professionals who have understand how to apply what they have learned to help your hospital serve fresher, more nutritious food for less. With Vision Software, you will get a clear picture of your hospital food service operation that allows you to focus on care and resource management. Call 629.777.8989 or fill in the free consultation form in the sidebar to learn more about our cost savings analysis tools and other resources dedicated to helping you do more.