enterprise health system

Centralized Multi-Site Hospital Foodservice

Over time, the healthcare industry has seen a significant increase in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. As the industry faces tighter budgets, staffing changes, and mounting paperwork, independent facilities frequently get absorbed by a more extensive enterprise health system. The benefits of joining facilities can lead to reduced operational costs and increased efficiency – needs that aren’t going away anytime soon.

Fewer but Fiercer

Structural changes have trickled down to hospital foodservice due to the impact of patient satisfaction scores and readmission rates on reimbursements. In addition, because mergers have led to fewer healthcare organizations, those remaining are in stricter competition than ever. Foodservice departments play an essential role in the success of an enterprise health system by providing patients with quality food and exceptional care while making complex adjustments. On top of these challenges, consolidation creates more budgetary competition between departments, often forcing foodservice to do more with less.

Analyzing Data = Realizing Goals

Since healthcare foodservice operations need to improve the patient experience while remaining cost-effective, they must use budgeted money intentionally to cover all departmental needs. Multi-site operations can analyze data to calculate costs and identify substantial amounts, which can help stretch and even reallocate money. Things like cost per recipe, food waste, and discarded or lost trays all add up to unnecessary spending.

Effectively gathering information from the many facets of healthcare foodservice (e.g. purchasing, tray service, nutrition facts, etc.) is tricky enough for one location, let alone an expansive web of separate sites. Even after hospitals become part of a single system, they often bring unique processes and schemas. Centralized multi-site hospital foodservice is imperative at the enterprise level. Operators must be able to store, access, maintain, and update an entire organization’s data with a single source. In doing so, they streamline data maintenance and improve the data integrity of the entire enterprise health system. After all, they have more pressing responsibilities than the tedious tasks of data entry and number-crunching.

A current review of Production Forecast Numbers compared to actual needs resulted in a projected annual reduction of $180,000 in 3 sites’ food orders from the Food Production Centre. These reductions in food orders were accomplished during the current year when inpatient meal service served increased by 7.5%. Standardizing and centralizing this process will assist us in ensuring the improvements are sustained.

SASKATOON HEALTH REGION

Software that Considers Your Needs

Computrition’s enterprise food and nutrition software solutions leverage automation to complete redundant and time-consuming tasks, allowing staff members to focus on their primary functions. Our foodservice management solution generates inventory reports and forecasts production needs so that chefs can produce delicious and nourishing meals. Nutrition Services can use critical nutrition functionality that automatically corrects menus according to Likes, Dislikes, Allergies, and Restrictions (LDARs), enabling personalized care and ensuring patient safety. For retail generation, we offer a point-of-sale solution that increases throughput and utilizes secure payment options for full PCI-compliance. These products also feature complete integration, which means they are in constant communication to keep everyone on the same track – everywhere!

See It In Action

Take a look at additional resources to find out how our automated solutions benefit
centralized multi-site hospital foodservice – producing the highest levels of:

Take a look at additional resources to find out how our automated solutions benefit centralized multi-site hospital foodservice – producing the highest levels of: