A restaurateur's approach.Don't just hope for a good dining experience--create one! HOW MANY OF YOU CAN'T WAIT TO INVITE FRIENDS OVER for a private dinner party at your facility featuring the cuisine that is served to your residents? Or, if you were served food at the current level of service in your facility at a restaurant, would you be a repeat customer? Most would answer with a resounding re·sound v. re·sound·ed, re·sound·ing, re·sounds v.intr. 1. To be filled with sound; reverberate: The schoolyard resounded with the laughter of children. 2. no! The more pressing question, however, is how to bridge the gap between current traditional tray-line execution and a more hospitable hos·pi·ta·ble adj. 1. Disposed to treat guests with warmth and generosity. 2. Indicative of cordiality toward guests: a hospitable act. 3. restaurant-style approach. We all enjoy eating. Heck, we all enjoy going out to eat. And when we do, we rate performance in several areas. If we don't achieve a simple level of satisfaction in any one of these areas, our entire dining experience will be derailed. Atmosphere. If the restaurant does not smell or look appealing, if tables and chairs are not easy to access, or if the tables have not been bussed or set properly, we know that there is an immediate problem. Service. What is our experience if a server does not greet us within a couple of minutes of being seated? Or, if we don't get a breadbasket in a timely manner? Our dining experience is compromised if the menu is not communicated clearly or orders are not taken correctly. Food. Visualize a typical plate from your facility. Is it appetizing? Would you want to drink a beverage in a dark-colored glass that makes it impossible for you to tell what you are drinking? And how would you feel being arbitrarily served dessert at the same time your entree came? Why do we have a different standard for our residents than we would have for ourselves? Regulations won't permit you to think outside of the box? Regulations are nothing more than highly executed common-sense measures. Pureed diets? We all eat pureed foods. Pureed potatoes are called mashed mash n. 1. A fermentable starchy mixture from which alcohol or spirits can be distilled. 2. A mixture of ground grain and nutrients fed to livestock and fowl. 3. A soft pulpy mixture or mass. 4. ; pureed avocado avocado (ä`vəkä`do, ăv`–), tropical American broad-leaved evergreen tree of the genus Persea of the family Lauraceae (laurel family). is called guacamole. The answer is really easy. Getting there, however requires an orchestrated or·ches·trate tr.v. or·ches·trat·ed, or·ches·trat·ing, or·ches·trates 1. To compose or arrange (music) for performance by an orchestra. 2. effort and buy-in from dietary, nursing, activities, and administration. And if you are anywhere near successful in pulling off enhanced dining, count marketing in, too. * Nursing is key. The nursing staff is the front line of defense. Just ask a nurse aide which staff member receives the most complaints from residents about their meals. Nursing must be trained in, and made aware of, service skills in tandem Adv. 1. in tandem - one behind the other; "ride tandem on a bicycle built for two"; "riding horses down the path in tandem" tandem with foodservice execution. * Hire dietary personnel from within the restaurant industry. I'm not trying to talk you into making your dietary department into a restaurant per se, but the restaurant style of preparation, execution, and delivery is the most efficient and flexible system known to man. * Envision the elimination of your tray line. Dietary aides who have a primary role of filling tray-card orders are inherently inefficient labor. They can be better utilized by being re-trained to execute in a restaurant-style "line" format, where all menu items are prepared in an area close to the stove, grill, fryer, and refrigeration refrigeration, process for drawing heat from substances to lower their temperature, often for purposes of preservation. Refrigeration in its modern, portable form also depends on insulating materials that are thin yet effective. and made to order. * Establish a pantry area. Basically, have all beverages, salads, desserts, and dining room support items at a convenient location in or near the dining room--away from the "line"--and accessible to nursing and dietary simultaneously. * Treat your primary and alternate menu offerings as equals. Offer them tableside ta·ble·side n. The area beside or around a table, especially in a restaurant. adv. & adj. Made or prepared alongside a table: lamb that was carved tableside; a tableside recitation of the menu. (where the resident is able to identify a choice). It really sounds good to a resident to hear, "Emily, would you like to eat roast beef or chicken for dinner?" And yes, offer at tableside, not the day before or a week before. After all, none of us are expected to know what we want for lunch tomorrow or next week. * Course your menu offerings. Start with a salad or soup. Remove those dishes, then bring the entree. Then try a dessert tray or dessert cart to finish the meal. It's all about dignity and, at the very least, good manners Noun 1. good manners - a courteous manner courtesy personal manner, manner - a way of acting or behaving niceness, politeness - a courteous manner that respects accepted social usage urbanity - polished courtesy; elegance of manner . * Be conscious of the dining experience. Servers should not be overheard boasting about a party they attended. Appropriate background music is a must. These folks probably don't appreciate the Rolling Stones Rolling Stones, English rock music group that rose to prominence in the mid-1960s and continues to exert great influence. Members have included singer Mick Jagger (Michael Phillip Jagger), 1943–; guitarists Brian Jones or Garth garth n. 1. A grassy quadrangle surrounded by cloisters. 2. Archaic A yard, garden, or paddock. [Middle English, enclosed yard, from Old Norse gardhr; see Brooks. Aromas Aromas may refer to:
Elegant does not equal expensive This all sounds pretty good, but what about the budget? Great meals can be produced for between $3.35 and $4.00 per day. House-made soups, daily specials, and appealing employee meal programs all help keep waste to a minimum. Accurate tracking of purchasing, production, and inventory keeps costs within pennies of projection. Removal of the tray line and re-training the dietary aide results in a labor cost of about $4.00 per patient day for a typical 200-bed facility. In short, you can provide a superior meal program, and probably for fewer dietary dollars than you are currently spending. So the only question that remains is, "What do your residents feel like eating for dinner?" Bill Lutz is vice president of Optimum Solutions & Strategies Inc., foodservice consultants to residential health care facilities, in Columbus, Ohio Columbus is the capital and the largest city of the American state of Ohio. Named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, and assumed the functions of state capital in 1816. . |
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