University of Florida Health Shands
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.
University of Florida Health Shands
University of Florida Health Shands (UF Health Shands) is a nationallyrecognized, 875-bed, teaching and research hospital that has been located in the urban community of Gainesville, Florida, for 56 years.
Nearly 900 expert UF College of Medicine and community physicians along with more than 8,000 skilled Shands nursing and support staff provide comprehensive high-quality patient care, from primary care and family medicine to subspecialty tertiary and quaternary services for patients with highly complex medical conditions. Shands’ affiliation with the UF Health Science Center, with which UF Health Jacksonville also is affiliated, allows patients to benefit from the latest medical knowledge and technology at the not-for-profit hospital.
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.
UF Health Shands benefits from not only Morrison Healthcare expertise but also environmental, transport and laundry services provided its sister organization Crothall Healthcare and Canteen which provides vending service. So, when UF Health Shands chose to increase its focus on patient satisfaction scores, many experts in their respective fields uniquely linked and committed to the hospital’s success worked together to fine tune the monitoring process.
But, it was the combined MorrisonShands Food and Nutrition team that made the organization’s Catering to You inpatient roomservice program successful and focused this year on improving food service satisfaction scores.
Results
The Avatar mean score in February 2014 for food service patient satisfaction was 79.76. Over the last eight months, the focused initiative raised the score nearly four points. In October 2014, the mean score was 83.41.
UF Health Shands administration has committed to infrastructure investment by purchasing new ovens and tray carts due to increased patient satisfaction scores.
Front-line staff is taking ownership of the process and patient satisfaction and is thrilled that professionalism is food services highest attribute.
How success was achieved
- The Nutrition and Food Services management team made certain that expectations—of hospital administration, managers, frontline staff and other departments— were understood and people were accountable. The first expectation was that everyone owned the patient experience, not just patient services.
- Food service leaders focused efforts on specific needs, such as:
- - Restructuring the patient visitation process to include clinical dietitians and ensuring their support.
- - Managing communication with nursing units and attending quarterly nurse staff meetings helped involve less-engaged units and enhanced support of engaged units.
- - Ensuring recipe accuracy
- - Holding staff accountable for good service behaviors.
- Other key actions taken include:
- - Met regularly with managerial staff to discuss progress, review all ideas and build support.
- - Created a double layer interview process to help ensure hiring only the best candidates.
- - Collaborated with nursing to match catering associates with patient care associates creating teams responsible for improving the overall meal experience.
- - Nursing staff was included in the test tray evaluation program.
- - Recognized high-performing staff through Caught Red Handed, a program where staff members nominate associates for specific actions. Those recognized were entered in a quarterly drawing resulting in three winners of either a $50, $25 or $10 meal card.
