Client Success Story - Morris Hospital and Healthcare Centers

Room Service 200—Gold Medal Winner

In May 2008 the Nutrition Services Department at Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers received the gold medal award for sustained customer satisfaction at the third annual Healthcare Food Service Industry Update conference. The award is a direct result of Morris Hospital’s increased patient satisfaction scores since launching room service, supported by CBORD^® Room Service 200. The conference was hosted by Don Miller & Associates, a company that assists institutional food service departments around the country in achieving excellence in food quality and service.

Nancy Stewart, Manager of Nutrition Services at Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers, oversees all preparation and service of patient meals, employee and visitor meals in the Bistro, and catering in house. According to Stewart, “The incredibly positive feedback we have received indicates that patients are enjoying ordering their meals from an expansive menu on their own schedule, just like hotel-style room service.”

Currently, Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers ranks in the 99th percentile for food service when compared to other hospitals across the nation using Professional Research Consultants (PRC) to rank their service.

According to Stewart, the switch to room service has also had a positive impact on employees. “It’s cyclical,” she says. “When you’re providing good service, it makes you feel good, so you’re happier and provide even better service. It just keeps going.”

What Patients Like Best

When patients would like to eat, they can simply dial “FOOD” (3663) on their room phone to place their order anytime between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Meals are made to order and delivered in forty-five minutes or less. For those who prefer their breakfast earlier, they can place their order the day before. For patients requiring assistance with meal selections, family members or designees may place meal orders for patients by calling from home.

The Champion Behind the Change

In the fall of 2006 the hospital began making plans to convert the patient meal service to hotel-style room service. By January 2007 management had selected CBORD Room Service 200 and Stewart was involved in training. Before implementing Room Service 200, the hospital did not have a computerized diet office. They operated with cardexes and had Meditech for electronic medical records (EMR).

They were able to receive data via Meditech, but the mechanics of the diet office were all manual. CBORD Room Service 200 now interfaces with Meditech so that the admissions, discharge and transfer interface (ADT) and diet orders automatically populate the database. Says Stewart, “With the CBORD Room Service 200 solution, diet office staff require less training and are more confident. We could not have done room service without automating the diet office.”

With Room Service 200, the call center operators are able to view important nutrient information while talking to patients. Operators are trained to incorporate what the patients want with what their diet orders allow. By presenting complete patient information, including restrictions and preferences, the system makes it easy for staff to liberalize diets. Stewart says, “With computerization, we were able to move forward with Room Service. In the year since we began using Room Service 200, our patient satisfaction scores have moved from the 50s to the 99th percentile. In addition, I know we have saved money on food, as food waste is virtually nonexistent.” CBORD’s automated Room Service has streamlined and improved the entire food service operation. “Looking back, I am confident we made the right choice with CBORD Room Service 200,” says Stewart.

Shared Best Practices

Stewart has some good advice for others moving to Room Service.

• It is very important to allow your team enough time to populate your database correctly.
• How well Room Service performs is directly related to how well your organization builds your database.
• Take the time to adequately prepare staff in your department and the hospital staff as a whole.
• Sometimes there is pressure to convert to Room Service quickly and it is very important that your staff and your system are ready.
• As with any customer-focused program, your staff must have a positive attitude about the changes that are coming.

Partnering with CBORD, Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers implemented a room service program that dramatically improved customer service and continues to ensure that patient safety is never compromised.