Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, IL, a Vision Software client, launched a new meal program in late 2009 to improve the patient experience. “Cuisine on Call” allows patients to enjoy a delicious meal of their choice, and at the precise time they want it, while still following any dietary guidelines ordered by their physician.
Room Service Advantages
Hospital Room Service Software Advantages
This and many similar patient meal service models in the hospital food service arena leverage the key advantages of room service delivery:
- A major uptick in patient satisfaction ratings for hospital food service. Patients who are in control of their menu choices and meal times are measurably more satisfied.
- Food cost savings. Extra meal trays and unwanted food items (that the patient didn’t order) are now off the menu.
- Improved meal accuracy, as each tray is prepared to personalized specifications using the most current diet order.
- Reduced staffing load for nursing.
- The opportunity for increased revenue through guest trays for family and visitors.
- A boost in employee morale for food service workers, who may dress the part, enjoy more patient contact, and receive the praise of patients.
- An improvement in the patient experience, which reflects upon image and marketing value for the institution.
While hospital room service may take on many forms, a typical room service system:
- Allows patients to order meals when they are ready to eat, much like a hotel room service model.
- Operates within a prescribed time frame, e.g., 6 AM to 7 PM.
- Provides rapid turnaround and in-room delivery of individual patient meal orders.
- Serves fresher food with better quality and temperature control.
- Allows patients to select all meal items that will be served, including entrees, sides, beverages, and desserts—within the constraints of the diet order and limitations related to food allergy or medication regimens.
- Features a perpetual room service menu with a variety of selections suitable for personal tastes and health-related dining needs.
The Role of Food Service Technology
The Role of Food Service Technology
As with any service system, the focus on room service is not only patient delight, but also economical operation. A cost-effective, efficient room service operation is impossible to achieve without the support of behind-the-scenes software. Supporting technologies from Vision Software cover all aspects of the service system.
From the Field
Room service implementation led to a surge in Press Ganey scores at Heritage Valley Hospital. Read the case study >>
- Diet office call center automation: Diet office software powers nutrition workers with real-time patient information and customized menus on screen, so they can walk patients through a safe and satisfying menu selection process.
- Patient safety controls: Menu review features such as food allergy checking, meal pattern review, and food/medication interaction checking prevent menu errors and protect patients’ well-being.
- Food production integration, including individual tray tickets printed on demand, for timely and accurate fulfillment.
- Tray tracking software to help you monitor all room service processes from start to finish.
- Patient identification: You can verify the order by scanning the patient ID bracelet to match the tray ticket.
- Versatile patient menu ordering systems: Spoken menus, interactive TV systems, and other technologies provide versatile choices for hospital food and nutrition departments.
- HL7 integration: HL7-compliant, real-time integration with hospital information systems keeps diet office staff up to date with current patient information to ensure accuracy. This includes patient location, diet order, and medications.
Room service implementation and service level enhancements require planning and analysis. Vision Software consults with healthcare organizations around the world to build turnkey, integrated software solutions for putting patients in charge of their meals.
More Resources
More Resources
From the Field
“We’re hearing that patients are happier. Dieticians on the floors see a vast reduction in meal-related complaints. Phone lines are opn all day long, so patients simply call when they’re ready for a meal. Staff like it because they see patients eating what they want, and kitchen stagg are thrilled to be part of the satisfaction.”
-Andre Munn, PMP, Project Manager – Health Information Technology Services Nova Scotia
- Glenn Richard Schirg. Determining Patient Satisfaction Scores for Hospital
- Room Service
- Press Ganey
- Putting Hospitality into Hospitals:
Patient Room Service - Putting Patients in Charge: Internet-Based Room Service (Source: http://www.anfponline.org/Publications/articles/2005_03_041RoomService.pdf)
- Vision Software Room Service Checkup
Vision Software’s progressive hospital room service software allows healthcare food service departments to be more confident in every aspect of patient mealtimes, by allowing patients to choose exactly what they eat and when, within the parameters of their own unique dietary requirements. Our hospital room service software can help your facility not only improve patient satisfaction and nutritional intake, but can also successfully reduce overheads associated with food waste. Our hospital room service software also makes patient meal ordering much faster, and more efficient, thanks to its strategic design, and allows your staff to intercept and make beneficiary changes to any meals that are ordered to ensure that what is delivered to each patient is guaranteed to contain everything they need nutritionally. Overall, our hospital room service software helps your foodservice staff exercise total control over what is available to your patients, without taking away their right to choice – which means happier, safer patients for you.