Florida Hospital Flagler
Morrison Healthcare is uniquely geared to foster bold ideas and innovation in the food service management industry. Our culture fosters the ability of our associates to provide solutions that address your needs with speed, substance and a success rate that no one else in the industry can rival.
Florida Hospital Flagler
Florida Hospital is one of the country’s largest not-for-profit health care systems with 22 campuses serving communities throughout Florida. A member of Adventist Health System, Florida Hospital serves as a community hospital for Greater Orlando and as a major tertiary referral hospital for Central Florida and much of the Southeast, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Established in Florida’s rural town of Palm Coast in 2001, Florida Hospital Flagler is a not-for-profit, 99-bed, acute care facility employing nearly 1,000 caregivers. Florida Hospital Flagler is comprised of the hospital’s main campus; Town Center Surgery, a freestanding outpatient center; and the Parkway Medical Plaza which includes a walk-in clinic, laboratory, imaging and women’s center and physician offices. The average patient age at Florida Hospital Flagler is 72, and 90 percent of its patients moved to Florida from the nation’s Northeast.
Patients and family members consider everything from renowned physicians and compassionate nursing care to clean floors and good food when rating their overall quality of and satisfaction with a hospital experience. The new administration at Florida Hospital Flagler were dedicated to improving patient satisfaction scores in all areas of the hospital.
Florida Hospital Flagler administration tackled low overall scores across the hospital and at the same time trusted Morrison Healthcare to lead the reorganization of the food service team responsible for its Catering to You program. Morrison had recently implemented Catering to You, the hospital’s on-demand alternative to traditional delivery of breakfast, lunch and dinner at hospital-specified times.
The availability of food that patients want when they want it not only impacts satisfaction scores, but also often provides cost savings. The traditional food delivery method can result in untouched, wasted food trays and nurses scrambling to meet the need of hungry patients who were not able to eat during hospitalspecified food delivery times due to illness or being away from their room for testing.
Results
In February 2014, Press Ganey reported food service satisfaction scores of 78.9% before the reorganization of Catering to You was implemented. By October 2014, the patient satisfaction score for food service was 86%.
The staff realized the results of their hard work. They are proud and enthusiastic about Food and Nutrition currently having the highest patient satisfaction scores in the hospital.
How success was achieved
The new administration rallied the entire hospital to focus on patient satisfaction. Each floor became responsible for specific metrics and each reported on weekly progress, or lack thereof, to hospital directors. With 100% support from the hospital administration, the Morrison and Flagler food service management team reorganized the Catering to You staff to improve the team’s focus on patient satisfaction.
Change is always difficult to manage, particularly when it requires staff to accept more work as well as attend enhanced weekly training sessions.
The food service management team implemented the following to positively move the process forward.
- All mangers, catering associates and patient cooks were involved in menu planning as well as brainstorming sessions for improving satisfaction.
- Weekly meetings with administration and nursing.
- Food service was represented at all satisfaction meetings to provide input.
- 100% of managers rounded regularly.
- Each catering associate whose unit floor is at or above benchmark of 75% was rewarded with a $100 gift card. Press Ganey survey mentions also were rewarded and successes were publicly recognized in daily start meetings.
- Monthly calls with Morrison’s regional vice presidents to discuss what was working and brainstorm ways to meet continued challenges.
- Training in the use of scripting and verbalizing “very good” was provided to staff.
- Every catering associate was shadowed once a week providing coaching opportunities.
- Catering to You business cards were provided to each patient upon discharge.
- Food service teams wore “Very Good” buttons to inspire conversation with customers.
- Increased used of heated casserole dishes.
- Three test trays were inspected per day.
- Diet brochures were created for patients.
- A second hot option was added to the dinner menu.
