Time to upgrade your POS system?

In our three-part series, The Need to Automate, we took a look at two areas that scream, “You need automation!” The foodservice department was one and the other was nutrition services. Now, we take our sights to retail foodservice, particularly the use of point-of-sale (POS) systems.

In today’s world, a big revenue generator for healthcare facilities is the ability to sell items at cafeterias or cafes. Using an up-to-date POS system is one component in these areas that can definitely make a difference, in terms of throughput and ease of payment. (FYI – “throughput” is the rate at which a line of people move through to pay for their items at the register.)

If you’re using a simple manual cash register – which has no features for payroll deduction or declining balance – in a very busy retail foodservice area, using an up-to-date system is a GAME CHANGER. Bottlenecks can occur in manual situations, because in most cases, cash is required for payment. Cashless options, such as payroll deduct or declining balance, are features that can significantly increase throughput but are otherwise unavailable with manual cash registers.

If you’re wondering if your POS system is up to par with industry standards, consider the following top three indicators that scream, “You need automation!” in your retail foodservice:

1. Currently using cash registers
2. Legacy POS with separate systems incorporated for payroll and credit card processing
3. Lacking payroll deduct or declining balance features

Are these points happening in your facility? If you’d like to find out more about what POS systems can do for your retail foodservice, we suggest you start your search on the web for more information. There are a plethora of vendors that taught their systems’ features, so make sure you consider those that will solve your business challenges. Make sure you check their web pages and review any resources they have, like spec sheets or white papers.

We hope you enjoyed our three-part series on The Need to Automate and make sure you check out our blog next month and thereafter for more helpful articles!

Without a doubt there is always great interest surrounding the highest ranking leaders across various industries – for healthcare, we look to U.S. World News Report to find out the Best Hospitals, for America’s Top Colleges we check out Forbes. Considering all of the exceptional customers that Computrition partners with, we decided three years ago that it was time to start an annual ranking of our own! Among all the participants who enter the contest, one foodservice operator is carefully selected and awarded for being a Prodigy. It’s not an easy feat to pick one winner, especially when the pool of submissions consists of exceptional leaders who are each stamping out a unique impression of quality in the foodservice industry.

Most of you will recognize the name of the winner given that “approximately 4-5% of all inpatient care delivered in the country” is provided by this organization. With great excitement, Computrition is pleased to present the 2013 Prodigy Award to Parallon - West Florida Division HCA! Prior to the implementation of foodservice software, Parallon – WFD HCA’s need to automate was evident when taking into account redundant functions, inconsistent processes, manual work and inadequate systems. In partnering with Computrition, Parallon – WFD HCA’s Division Director of Food & Nutrition Services, Joyce Hagen-Flint, helped steer an immense change that includes centralization, standardization and integration.

What exactly did this transformation consist of?  

To start, with Hospitality Suite and SuitePoint! Point-of-Sale, the division was able to support the consolidation of the management of their Food & Nutrition Services department for 15 hospitals! This allowed Parallon – WFD HCA to share the workload of the system build, which helped to reduce redundant effort and streamline the duration of implementation to less than 15 months. By centralizing, Parallon – WFD HCA was able to take the steps towards standardizing their menu using the Nutrition Care Management (NCM) module. In using the Food Operations Management (FOM) aspect of Hospitality Suite, Parallon – WFD HCA has the capability to issue and track floor stock which helped to accurately identify costs and consequently use the data to drive policy changes that will support expense reduction. What is more, three hospitals within the division have already adopted the Room Service program, while several of the other facilities are utilizing wireless tablets to take patient orders at bedside.

How has all of this impacted Parallon – WFD HCA’s performance?

During the first quarter of 2013, the Total Food Expense per Adjusted Admission for the division was the lowest in the group – coming in 9% lower than the average for the assigned operating group. Additionally, total dollars saved in 2012 was the highest of all divisions in the company. Since automating, 95% of the food and supply purchases made by the division helped Parallon – WFD HCA reach the highest level of GPO contract compliance in the healthcare system. As a result, Total Food Cost per Adjusted Patient Day has decreased and manufacturers’ rebates have increased. With the integration of the SuitePoint! Point-of-Sale solution Parallon – WFD HCA’s retail operations now offer cashless options to their customers that include credit/debit cards and payroll deduction. This particular enhancement has produced increased revenue for the division. The system is also being used to track the actual cost of complimentary meals and to develop recommendations to improve control of the costs of complimentary services.

Those are the marks of a Computrition Prodigy and we congratulate Parallon – West Florida Division HCA for advancing foodservices by way of technology!

This month we continue our 3-part series by branching out to the nutrition services department and considering the top indicators for The Need to Automate. Today’s hospital is under a lot of scrutiny and operationally speaking, just about every decision that is pending approval entails consideration of the patient’s experience. That makes sense, given the underlying influence that satisfaction scores have on the representation of quality and the extent of reimbursements for the hospital.

In nutrition services, automation has demonstrated to be a considerable safety measure simply because it helps to nearly eliminate the high error rates of manual methods. With the rise of food allergies, what hospital wants to take the risk of a possible fatal outcome knowing very well that it could have been easily prevented? As the implementation of HIS and EMR’s in healthcare matures, the inter-departmental exchange of patient information becomes much more feasible due to integration capabilities afforded by automation. This is HUGE for streamlining the current workflow within a department, along with gearing up for the future objectives hospital-wide.

Happier patients lead to better satisfaction scores. It’s that simple!

If your response to the following three statements below is YES, then the need to automate has been confirmed:

1. There is no automated system in place to prevent food served to patients that may cause allergic reactions
2. Patient menu planning is done by  hand
3. Cardex information is maintained on paper instead of an electronic format

Now that you’ve taken the first steps to recognize the need, continue your due diligence by seeking out feedback from industry peers, attending industry conferences and researching the latest studies. But throughout your quest, be sure to deliberate the positive implications that automation can have on your satisfaction scores just by reprioritizing your staff’s concentration from one that is paper-driven to one that is patient-driven!

Have you ever met a professional in your industry using a flip phone with no capabilities to take pictures or view the Internet? With all the advancements in technology, that device is simply outdated.

Today’s cell phones are smarter: they’re filled with features such as sending & receiving instant emails, capturing video, GPS, playing music, and more. The more you download apps, the more functionality you have on your phone. These devices have evolved beautifully and that makes for a unique experience!

If your foodservice department doesn’t use an automation system, your operations may not be performing at its best.

Using no automation or a legacy system in foodservice, nutrition service, or retail operations is kind of like the old flip phone. You can do basic functions without them, but operations who have upgraded to up-to-date systems function so much better. Imagine all the increased labor savings, improved patient satisfactions scores (which can contribute to reimbursements, by the way), and increased revenues that an institution could achieve.

This post is one of a three-part series that focuses on the top three signs in each department that scream, “You need automation!” For foodservice operations, here they are:

1. Meals are made using non-standard recipe procedures, such as the chef preparing the product from memory
2. Food item orders are faxed to vendors
3. Proper forecasting isn’t used to produce desired quantities of food

Sound familiar? If you’re experiencing these scenarios, it might be time to start searching for an automation system or updating the one you currently have in place. For those without automation, there are many resources out there, like white papers,  to help guide you in your pursuit of a suitable system. Perform your due diligence and find the solution that best fits with your facility.

Make sure to check out our upcoming article next month as we continue our series by focusing on the top three signs that tell nutrition services , “You need automation!”

Guessing can be dangerous when you have food allergies!

A few years ago the CDC brought it to our attention that over 3 million children and teens in the U.S. are affected with various food allergies and those statistics just keep growing. As the youth progresses into adulthood, they must continue to be attentive of what they consume.

Universities and colleges across the nation are starting to take this matter more seriously, especially after a recent settlement in which students with celiac disease and/or food allergies “alleged that the university violated ADA by neither addressing the needs of students with food allergies nor ensuring them that equivalent dining experience.” In wake of the incident, Food Management magazine took A Look at What’s Ahead for Foodservice Across the Onsite Segments (pg. 22) and determined that the future of campus foodservice indicates “gluten-free and allergen-free menu offerings and prep areas will become more sophisticated.”

Simple food safety initiatives that identify allergens, such as mobile menu technology and food labeling, also contribute a great deal in reinforcing awareness of food content and avoidance of allergic reactions. According to Mayo Clinic, “eight foods (milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat) included in food allergy labeling account for an estimated 90% of allergic reactions.”  In order to protect consumers and prevent lawsuits, foodservice operators may have to pay closer attention to labeling laws that the FDA continues to redefine.

Having a sensitive condition to live with, individuals with food allergies can certainly benefit from extra support in their efforts to refrain from eating potentially harmful foods.

In retrospect of the last decade in healthcare foodservice, several changes have taken place – the major being the integration of technology. Acute care isn’t the only side of healthcare that has come a long way; long term care is evolving too. FoodService Director Magazine recently covered The Changing Face of Long-term Care by highlighting a roundtable discussion among dietary directors that took place during the Association of Nutrition and Foodservice Professionals conference. Here’s a recap of the current objectives, conditions and initiatives in long term care.

Regardless of industry, foodservice leaders are constantly faced with the unique challenge of accommodating clients while meeting the objectives set forth by administration. Currently, the most significant challenges in long term care include decreasing operational costs while increasing productivity, followed by implementing new programs, maintaining employee retention and adequately training staff. Evidently, all of these objectives become even trickier to accomplish with Medicaid and state reimbursements getting cut.

Several conditions within long term care are affecting these operational objectives. Most notably is the cultural change among the patient population, which clearly shows a shift in the age demographic. Formerly the industry use to serve a predominantly older age group, now facilities are receiving younger patients who are staying for various rehabilitation purposes (i.e. post surgery healing; drug/alcohol recovery). This shift is creating a need for more specialized services, especially for instances when patients request meals during non-traditional times. With all of the advancements seen in the hospital setting, likewise, nursing homes previously built on a hospital model are now being constructed based on a hotel model. Out-dated facilities call for renovated menus and remodeled rooms in order to contend.

Patients nowadays want to exercise their decision-making power and operators cannot ignore the need to offer broader options that enables more flexibility regarding time of meal, choice of meal, and location of meal. That is why many facilities have introduced a family-style dining concept and some have even begun transitioning to a 24-hour room service model. Consequently, operators are developing menus that take into consideration preferences of residents that attend to popular regional foods of locals, international foods for tenured travelers and traditional comfort foods in general.

If patients with shorter lengths of stay in a hospital setting desire improved foodservices, it only makes sense that residents staying in a facility for even longer durations of time would want the same class of service.

While looking over the influences of technology on food consumption last year, we could not disregard the consumer’s increased level of flexibility due to remote accessibility of information. Most obviously, the internet has been the main culprit for mobility in foodservices. Why bother going into a restaurant just to check a menu when you can conveniently do it from your desktop or laptop? Identifying nutritional facts, ingredients and allergens are just a few major benefits of internet-based menu technologies worth mentioning.

Thanks to the telecommunications industry, mobile reach has expanded even further with the development of smartphones. Setting aside those desktops and laptops, these days consumers simply pick up their web-accessible phones and easily browse for dining-related inquiries while on-the-go. A study conducted by the communications company, O2, reflected that “on average, smartphone owners now spend over 2 hours a day using their phones”. Interestingly, from that total amount smartphone users attributed the most time (nearly 25 minutes per day) towards “browsing the internet”.

Undoubtedly, internet-based menu technologies are expected to boom via smartphones as they have with computers. According to a recent Technomic report , “young internet users are especially likely to associate their phones with food”, particularly to look over menus. Their research measured 106.7 million smartphone users in the U.S. during 2012, which equates to 44% of total mobile phone users. It should not come as a surprise that future forecasts expect those figures to climb past more than half of all U.S. mobile users by 2014.

We couldn’t agree more with Hudson Riehle, Senior VP of research at the National Restaurant Association, regarding the outlook of technology in foodservice and how it “is becoming more of an expectation than a novelty.”

Satisfy customers and spur on sales!

Progressively more we are noticing that the presence of valuable information at the point of sale setting has the ability to dually affect both the consumer and the retailer. Take for example current laws requiring menu labeling and also the public’s heightened interest surrounding nutrition. These circumstances have taken the act of transparency to a whole new level. But simply displaying relevant information on static menu boards doesn’t seem to cut it. Nation’s Restaurant News magazine, suggested how digital menu boards can “better engage consumers and change their behavior at the point of sale”, which has the potential to impact the retailer by “spurring sales of promoted items.” This makes the integration between nutrition software and digital signage vendors all that more worthwhile, as it allows the electronic delivery of nutrient data, menu items and selling prices to a dynamic menu board. The outgrowth of this technology partnership presents numerous advantages, such as instant menu updates communicated to patrons in real-time.Additionally, the retail consulting firm, King-Casey, outlined several benefits of enhancing menu boards that pressed beyond aesthetic elements to include an “analysis of menu items”. As a result of strategic enhancements affecting the point of sale experience, they “routinely see sales increases of 5-10%”.

In summary, consumers gain the opportunity to make shrewd choices based on accurate data and their engagement draws in greater sales for retailers. According to the King-Casey report, “customer satisfaction, thru-put, check-size and profit margin” are all affected. Sounds like enhancing the point of sale experience can be a win-win situation.

In carrying on last month’s focus of a patient-centered future, it was fitting to follow-up this month with one of the most patient-centered solutions available to healthcare foodservices today – room service!Hospitality in the healthcare setting isn’t just a fad, as we see an increasing number of hospitals implement a room service style for patient meal delivery. Nationally recognized hospitals, like Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, are gaining a competitive edge and achieving measurable outcomes with their automated room service programs.

Recently, we set out on a mission to gather the opinion of healthcare foodservice leaders to find out whether or not automation is recognized as a significant factor for running a successful room service program. Results of Computrition’s recent poll determined that 88% of industry professionals who participated consider automation crucial!

From a hospitality stand-point, automated room service benefits like on-demand ordering, efficient meal delivery, and expanded menu selections are just a few contributions towards increased satisfaction scores. And operationally speaking, a fundamental nature of room service technology is the ability to link with the patient’s electronic medical records (EMRs), equipping hospital staff to accurately distribute meals.

When all’s said and done, an automated room service program assists healthcare foodservice leaders to properly manage time, labor, and not to mention, costs. Decreasing plate waste is one of the most considerable initiatives in shrinking overall food costs. As in Legacy’s case, “food costs decreased $200,000” just in the first year of automating! That’s crucial.

Hospitals that have already launched an automated approach are continuing to invest in the practice of patient-centered care with a complete room service program that includes resources such as bed-side ordering, tray tracking and TV meal selections.

Patients are the pulse of America’s future healthcare!

As America wraps-up one presidential term and prepares to enter into a new one, the recurring topic of the healthcare system resurfaces in headline news. By now most of the healthcare industry has accepted the reality of an inadequate system. For those who have not yet come to terms with the reality, just reference the ongoing studies confirming how standard methods are failing hospitals in preventing errors.

Another reality is the proactive patient population at hand who is vigilant to safety and quality concerns and their involvement during the care process should not be underestimated. Protecting lives and preventing unnecessary costs is the collective objective. Some healthcare executives have started to hone that objective to a narrower outlook: investing in a patient-centered future with results-oriented practices.

Results-oriented practices go hand-in-hand with technology and research continues to reaffirm that technology is a worthwhile investment in the initiative to improve patient care. Technology not only facilitates in compiling data and engaging staff with patients, but more importantly produces added transparency in healthcare.

With hospital reimbursements more closely correlating to measurable outcomes, healthcare executives are increasingly embracing technology to help translate information into actionable insights. Take for example, hi-tech hospitals like Mayo Clinic, Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Intermountain Healthcare who are collaborating in their efforts to invest in a patient-centered future.

As the population pushes the envelope for patient-centered care, we encourage hospitals to reevaluate current methods and consider the long-term implications of technology for the future of healthcare.  Based on healthcare IT trends, the following are just a few attributes forward-thinking hospitals are moving towards:

• integration capability
• real-time system functionality
• mobile accessibility
• secure connectivity
• ongoing advanced developments

Here’s to a promising presidential term and to a patient-centered future!