Re-engineering the Inpatient Meal Delivery Process for Today’s Healthcare System

Abstract

Decreases in length of hospital stay and inpatient census have had numerous implications on inpatient feeding. Historically, 115 patients were fed with a 9-position patient tray assembly line. The assembly process was re-designed to include only 5 positions due to a decrease in average inpatient census to 65. Currently, with an average inpatient census of 35, there is a need to re-engineer the meal delivery system once again. The hot/cold food cart meal delivery system was selected based on the hospital's present and projected future inpatient census, time constraints, equipment needed, staffing requirements and space limitations. Several facilities with hot/cold food cart systems were contacted to provide information on task lists, implementation plans, and cart specifications. An in-house employee focus group was conducted to increase awareness, discuss potential problems, and recommend solutions. The design of the hot and cold food stations was based on input received. A floor plan was developed to illustrate equipment placement at each station, utilizing in-house equipment. New task lists outline duties and responsibilities. Data was collected throughout the planning and evaluating processes to show the benefits of this quality improvement. Preliminary tests show an increase in patient satisfaction via questionnaire responses and a decrease of 18.6% and 22% in temperature fluctuations of hot and cold food items, respectively. Thus, foods were maintained with less variation between food plating and food delivery temperatures. The hot/cold food cart system also enables a decrease in approximately 2.5 full time equivalent workers. Implementation of this system will save approximately 7,300 man-hours and $92,126 annually.