Technically Speaking...

Technology has played an increasingly important role in the dining operations at University Hospitals, from wireless order taking and payment to bar code based tracking of patient meals. Dining services provider Sodexo augments its phone-based room service ordering system with hand-held tablets that staffers can use to get orders from patients unwilling or unable to use the phone to request their meals. Orders are transmitted immediately by wireless signal to the kitchen. The system ensures that each patient only gets menu options appropriate to his or her diet restrictions because it keys the available menu to the room and bed.

The patient meals are tracked by bar code through a system called HealthTouch. “The operators who take patient meal orders can track where the food is at all times using bar codes,” explaines Tom Schwendeman, Sodexo district manager for the UH contract. “As soon as the tray is  nished being prepared, it’s scanned. Then, as soon as it goes into a cart, it’s scanned. As soon as it gets delivered to the patient, it gets scanned by the tray passer, who all carry remote scanners. So if a patient ever calls and asks where their food is, the operator can  nd out with just a click on the screen.”

HealthTouch also prevents patients from ordering what they are prohibited from having, and it tracks their daily intake of calories and nutrients. “So if they’ve reached their sodium or caloric limit, it would trigger an alternate choice,” Schwendeman says. It also helps identify patients who have not ordered meals.

Photo By: Michael Buzalka

In the cafeterias, a new POS system, combined with payroll deduction and declining balance meal account options, have streamlined checkout since the bulk of the customers are UH staff (who all get a 10-percent discount on meal purchases). The system allows not only debit payments from paychecks or dedicated meal accounts through a simple swipe of the staffer’s ID badge, but also credit card payment. About half of cafeteria transactions currently use payroll/ meal account deductions and less than 40 percent are cash.

On tap for future implementation are enhanced digital signage in the cafeteria and a room service ordering option through in-room TV sets. The new signage, featuring 42” monitors, would allow more interactivity as well as multiple messages on the same screen, from standard menu listings and nutritional information to emergency noti cations and in-house news since it would connect with UH’s internal communications network.

The TV ordering system would allow patients to bring up the menu for their particular diet on their in-room television, construct their orders through on-screen menu prompts and send the order to the kitchen. The system is tentatively set for its debut sometime next year.

A Smarter Einstein

Sitting in a corner of the main University Hospitals Case Medical Center complex atrium is the only dining alternative to the main cafeteria (other than vending and the private administrators dining room). This branded Einstein Brothers Bagels kiosk operation has been a huge success story since its opening in 2003. And that is why it was recently shut down...

Well, shut down temporarily in order to expand it. The station, which delivered close to half a million dollars in annual sales despite only being open for breakfast and lunch during the week, was becoming a victim of its own success. "People would walk by, see the long lines and keep going," says Dan Ballard, general manager of the UH dining operation for Sodexo, which licenses the branded eatery.

He felt that was restricting potential sales too much, so Einstein went into the shop this fall for a full makeover. The renovation will add production capacity so that the full corporate Einstein menu will be available, including grilled sandwiches, pizza, smoothies and an expanded array of healthy/wellness choices (previously, food was limited to bagels and some grab and go). There will also be a second cashier and an express line for those who only want to grab a coffee (the kind most discouraged by a long line). Hours will also expand, from a 2 pm closing previously, to 6 pm. The expanded hours are expected to accommodate UH staffers, who are the kiosk's core customer base (visitors seem to prefer the cafeteria).

The footprint will not change much because much of the expansion is through previously unused storage space. The new operation will require more manpower in the form of three new FTEs, says Ballard. But the payback promises to be worth it. He estimates that the new station will make up the revenue it lost while being closed for six weeks in less than a month after its projected mid-December opening.

The Exception

Unique among the regional network locations of the University Hospitals system is the extended care campus in nearby Chardon, OH. The bucolic 150-acre grounds, a former estate that still includes four original wooden buildings as well as five natural springs, a carriage house, granary and barn, includes a specialty hospital, shortterm and outpatient rehab center, extended care and assisted living facilities and a memoryimpaired care unit.

Sodexo’s operations on the campus, overseen by Nutrition Services Director Gregory McClain and Executive Chef Michael Kidder, includes tray service for about a hundred extended care and hospital patients, dining room service for 60 assisted living residents and 20 memory-impaired unit residents and retail café service for staff and visitors.

The retail component was recently upgraded considerably with a new café that required an extended shutdown and forced diners to crowd into a miniscule servery space to get their limited range of choices. But the wait was apparently worth it as the new facility, opened this past June, has seen a doubling of weekly sales, highlighted by a 40-cent increase in check average despite no price increases associated with the remodel.

The café emphasizes healthier and lighter choices for a clientele that is mostly female. The focus is on traditional dishes, with the occasional exotic ethnic special thrown in for variety.

The patients receive various levels of meal service. For the hospital and critical care patients, there is a standard trayline since the room service patient dining offered in the other UH sites was deemed impractical for the kind of patients cared for at the extended care campus. The residents in the memory-impaired unit eat in a communal dining room with assistance from staff while the assisted living residents are fairly independent. They purchase or prepare their own breakfasts and lunches and take dinner in the communal dining room, where the menu includes a pair of daily specials as well as half a dozen standard favorites.