What advice would you give ?
1Firstly , understand your clinical case mix or the type of patients that you have .
This not only helps to understand the types of diets or combinations of diets that your organisation may need which will inform you menu design , but also the specific symptoms that these groups may have that may impact on their nutritional intake and how they may benefit from a more flexible room service ordering model . The challenge is then to integrate all diets into the one a la carte restaurantstyle room service menu .
Secondly , the introduction of a comprehensive electronic menu management system is essential , to ensure the capability required for safe and flexible meal ordering , meal tray tracking and nutritional intake monitoring . Shifting from a paper-based manual system to a fully electronic system is a significant challenge for many staff who may have worked in traditional foodservice models for a long time , so some technology readiness assessment is useful .
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3Thirdly , engage the whole multidisciplinary team from the beginning in the room service journey . You will be surprised at how many staff , clinical as well as operational , are affected by the change -- and everyone needs to be engaged in the new process redesign .
And finally , make sure you have baseline data on your key outcome measures before starting your implementation . To be able to demonstrate both effectiveness and return on investment , it is important to be able to measure the change in these outcomes as key drivers of the move to a room service model .
LEARN MORE :
• View a brief video to learn more about the Room Service Initiative .
• View the news of Room Service ’ s rollout on the South Brisbane campus of Mater , including an accompanying video .
• View the patient-facing information page on Room Service .
• View the research behind Room Service . Connect with Sally on LinkedIn
© Dietitian Connection 35 Infuse | December 2017