The reality of healthcare food services is that there is an enormous opportunity to surpass the expectations of the customers. The expectation of any patient admitted to a hospital is the food is unappealing and tasteless. Another realization is that there was never a time an individual just wanted to go to a hospital for the meals.
The challenge for food and nutrition management teams is to set the expectations and educate the customer prior to rendered meals offering or services. The complexity of meal service does not start and end with the preparation and serving of the meal. The meal service process is a team sport, where the entire facility needs to be engaged in the meal process and understand that each staff member is an interracial part of the meal process. The customer needs to have some level of control in the ordering his or her meal but with the majority of the staff in the kitchen, fielding comments and communicating the likes and dislikes of the patient back to food service is the basic challenges for any hospital.
The strategy is to improve the communication process and setting the expectations by explaining meal options, styles of service, and the clinical restriction, which needs to be discussed prior to the first meal served. Although this sounds uncomplicated, many facilities fail to communicate this information effectively.
In developing a communication strategy, the key element is focusing on "the moment of truth", which is creating a strategy that starts when the customer receives his or her meal and working backward. Think if any other food establishment as an example, if a customer is looking for specific meals the ability to view the menu, décor, and specials is available through varies marketing Medias. The strategy in marketing is establishing value though effectively communication. Although hospital food is not considered gourmet, there are many values to the product. There is no reason these values cannot be effectively conveyed to the customer upon admission building credibility. In healthcare, the food business needs to think entrepreneurially incorporating basic manufacturing branding concepts.
The food service industry with the exception of healthcare has an opportunity to market and brand their product prior to purchase. With a captive customer base in healthcare, the opportunity and the discretion of the food and nutrition department could create an experience that surpasses the basic expectation of hospital food.
Thinking as a marketer instead of a food director should be a prerequisite for the position of any food director. The Department of Health (DOH) in code 482.28 states the food service director must be a full-time employee who has been granted the authority and delegated responsibility by the hospital's governing body and medical staff for the operation of the dietary services. This authority and delegated responsibility includes the daily management of the service, implementing training programs for dietary staff, and ensuring that established policies and procedures are maintained that address at least safety practices for food handling; emergency food supplies; orientation, work assignments, supervision of work and personnel performance; menu planning, purchasing of foods and supplies, and retention of essential records (e.g., cost, menus, personnel, training records, QAPI reports, etc).
In this explanation, the director is granted the authority and delegated responsibilities to make decisions about the effectiveness of the food service department. To summarize the role of a director he or she needs to have think entrepreneurial and with a passion to develop, a business customer focus and drives the program by setting a vision with long-term objectives.
Thinking as a marketer one needs to think about the targeted audience by taking into account and understanding of preferences of the customer and develop a food strategy that can satisfy and meet the clinical and regulatory requirement.
Strategic management is defined as the set of decisions and actions that result in the formulation and implementation of plans designed to achieve the objectives. In the strategy of health care food service, it is about improving the "moment of truth."
As with any strategic plan, the first and most important step is to develop a vision and mission statement specifically for the food and nutrition department. The next set is to review the internal capabilities and analyze the resources including staffing, capital, internal logistics, budget, and the external environment to understand what can be accomplished successfully. Once each resource is evaluated, the next step is to develop long-term objectives with short-term objectives that support the vision. In one's experience, being a directors and in trying to resolve a problem one can becomes too reactive by implementing a program that on the surface seems to improve a segment of the program but does not address the problem. If one creates a drop-in programs and fails to understand the long-term strategy the problem is by pulling resources that support the vision will only create problems deeper-rooted problems in meeting the objectives.
At times, one hears comments like "the more that changes the more it stays the same." This comment in one's opinion is because there is no strategic plan with long-term objectives. A food director responsibility is to generate the plan and more important selling the plan to senior management highlighting the importance and need for change.
The challenge for any food and nutrition leadership team is working through hospital policies, top senior hierarchy, nursing, support services, and budget requirements. Thinking as a business owner with a long-term objectives is what separates the outstanding operators from the average. The traits of any leadership for setting strategies that support entrepreneurship and innovative thinking along with the characteristics of being resourceful, creative, visionary, hardworking, and optimistic. These leaders are independent thinkers willing to take risks and innovate. Entrepreneurs live in a sea of dreams that entails the envisioning of expanding ones proverbial personal island by aligning all the boats and paddles in moving in the same direction.
The "moment of truth" and setting the expectations is not easy. It takes a personal commitment and the alignment of resources that requires a break away of traditional thinking. Whether the operation has an elaborate room service delivery service or the traditional tray service, the goals are still to set the expectations and the focus to maintain the expectation. Setting the decisive moment is thinking transformational and not just tinkering with the status quo but blowing up the old business models and creating new one. The difference is thinking strategically and setting a vision with each element of the plan being aligned and complimenting the "moment of truth."
By: Andrew E. Catalano
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_E_Catalano
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