Cura Hospitality

Outsourcing Provides Value-Added Benefits to Healthcare Facilities

2009-09-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

Today’s challenging economic environment is causing hospitals and medical facilities to seek ways to increase income, conserve cash and reduce expenditures. One of the smartest ways to achieve these goals is by outsourcing specialty services such as food service management.

While hospital administrators believe they can’t afford to outsource in today’s climate, food service contract executives say that with the high cost of food and commodities, you can’t afford not to. Healthcare food service management specialists like Cura Hospitality extend a significant cost savings benefit by providing value-added culinary, clinical, service, purchasing and training expertise to their clients that immediately impact patient and guest satisfaction.

Our goal is to help hospital administrators maximize their dollars. To do so, we believe that understanding the strategic goals of our clients is what makes the partnership between the hospital and contractor successful. We adapt our goals to our clients’ goals, customizing our culinary and service to best meet the needs of the hospitals’ focus.

But, this doesn’t mean skimping on top-quality food and service. While Cura recognizes that one of their chief responsibilities is buying a better quality product at a better price, an even great responsibility is procuring products that meet our gold standards for safe, healthy and fresh food. Purchasing whole and local food instead of convenience and frozen can offset your labor cost necessary to prepare foods from scratch and shipping costs. Fresh foods when purchased locally through Cura’s FarmSource, a sustainable sourcing program that partners with over 200 farms and local producers of food, can be executed with little or no extra cost. Fresh food is healthier and tastes great which helps to speed patient recovery (since patients are eating better).

Better food also increases revenues in the hospital cafe and take-home offerings which may subsidize patient service improvement programs. After partnering with Cura in 2007, Windber Medical Center experienced an immediate soar in café sales. “Food and service satisfaction was so high that we had to extend our cafeteria’s hospital hours,” says James Eckenrode, M.D., M.B.A., Interim CMO and CEO, Windber Medical Center.

Outsourcing also affords hospital administrators access to purchasing professionals who have the tools necessary to predict demand, avoid product shortages and reduce production waste, while receiving fresh foods and high-quality ingredients for use in their kitchens. “Judging from patient satisfaction surveys, we knew that our food program was not where it should be,” says Joan Massella, Administrative Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at St. Clair Hospital of Pittsburgh, PA. Cura was able to change that by introducing more fresh and locally produced foods and adding more vegetarian items to the café’s menu.

Contract food service management companies are the culinary and service experts, providing highly trained chefs and food service professionals, as well as the training to enhance their skills. Through Cura-sponsored in-house training colleges such as the Cura Culinary, Service and HR Colleges, food production and service staffs are able to offer trend-forward cooking and preparation techniques, the proper service steps and procedures, as well as the human resource training that help them to recruit, manage and retain great people. This is a benefit to our clients that adds lasting value as Cura understands investing in staff education at this level is impossible for self operators to achieve on their own. Additionally unique is that this training is offered to both Cura employees and the hospitals’ employees as part of our partnership agreement with no additional costs.

Just as important, is the extensive clinical support and resources that outsourcing provides. When Windber Medical Center wanted to remove trans-fats from its patient menus, outsourcing to the experts helped them to be one of the first hospitals in the country to do so. Menu Concierge, a spoken menu service where food service staffs take menu orders at bedside just prior to serving the meal, is also offered to hospitals to increase efficiency and the health of patients since their diets may change from one day to the next.

Improving sustainable and eco-friendly initiatives also save hospitals money, whether it’s making the switch from Styrofoam to reusable dishware and china, composting on-site or creating consumer supported agriculture opportunities at the hospital. “As members of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, we spoke to many small farmers who can’t grow enough to be involved with us. Through FarmSource, we are able to host mini farmers’ market events at hospitals like St. Clair,” says Jamie Moore, Cura Director of Sourcing and Sustainability. Moore recently addressed members of The Hospital and HealthSystem Association of Pennsylvania, on ways to create greener hospital campuses.

People who would have never considered outsourcing their food service are now taking a second look. It’s really about value and partnering with the experts who know how to spend your hospital dollars wisely, delivering great tasting food and increased satisfaction by making informed choices and employing expert resources.

View Previous Post:

Cura Hospitality Launches Menu Concierge; Education Creates Courteous, Knowledgeable Patient Concierges

Senior Living Administrators Face "Culture Change"; Trends in Hospitality

Cura Hospitality Launches Menu Concierge; Education Creates Courteous, Knowledgeable Patient Concierges

2009-04-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

To better serve and understand the dietary needs of hospital patients, Cura Hospitality of Pittsburgh, PA, recently launched Menu Concierge, a spoken menu service where courteous, friendly and educated concierges take patient menu orders at bedside just prior to serving the meal. This personalized service is efficient and better for patients, as their diets and tastes may change from one day to the next, and, overall, provides a more socially appealing environment that’s uplifting to patient dining.

The key to Menu Concierge’s success is the education and interactive training components that provide the staff with the opportunity to get enthused about their new role. According to Chris Vitsas, Cura general manager at St. Clair Hospital in Pittsburgh, the goal is to create courteous as well as knowledgeable concierges who are able to assist patients with dietary and menu-related questions.

Concierges attend initial training conducted by Brandon Smoker, Cura patient services manager and Jacque Baker, Cura director of dining services. “We provide a step-by-step education process that begins with gracious hospitality such as how to greet patients, properly take an order using a palm pilot, serve meals and how to provide follow-up care,” says Smoker.

Concierges are also able to view photographs of each of the hospital’s new patient menu selections in the kitchen so they know how the food should be plated and presented to the patient. “It’s the basics, but studies show that in addition to great tasting food, patient satisfaction is largely driven by the attentiveness of concierges,” adds Smoker, who reports that recent patient satisfaction survey scores dramatically increased for ‘courtesy of the person serving the food’.

In addition to gracious hospitality, concierges need to intimately know the menu selections and to be knowledgeable about the nutritional profile of each meal. While Cura’s clinicians assess patients’ nutritional needs, develop and implement nutrition programs, and evaluate and report the results, clinicians work closely with Menu Concierges. “We want our concierges to be more than just an “order-taker”. We believe that it’s important for our concierges to be hands-on, to know the menu, understand the dietary needs and restrictions of our patients, and to feel confident to answer patients’ questions about nutrition information,” says Ms. Baker.

Since Cura wanted all patients, including those in isolation, to experience this new dining service, concierges are trained on the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) regulations and patient safety such as the proper procedures upon entering a patient’s room and the steps of dressing and removing personal protective clothing and equipment. Concierges also attend monthly meetings conducted by Cura management and clinicians that may focus on specific diets, safety-related topics, dining service and menu enhancements.

As an added tool, Cura provides its concierges with pocket cards that help make learning, remembering and referencing the fundamentals of nutrition and dietary modifications easy and fun. The Cura-developed pocket-size cards feature several nutrient-related topics such as foods that are low in fat, sodium and sugar; fluid restrictions that include foods and liquids that are part of fluid intake; and safety-related procedures.

To complement the Menu Concierge service, a new patient menu was launched at St. Clair which features fresh, made-to-order food selections prepared by Executive Chef Rob Coyne, who joined the Cura team at St. Clair in the summer of 2008. The new patient menu, which was first offered to the nursing staff to taste-test and offer feedback, was officially approved earlier this year with rave reviews. “Patients are eating better and enjoy new and delicious menu selections such as herb roasted pork loin, cranberry orange salad and Belgian waffles,” adds Ms. Baker.

Senior Living Administrators Face "Culture Change"; Trends in Hospitality

2009-02-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

Let's face it; food is at the heart of senior living communities. But for today’s older adults, dining is more than just another meal. Gone are the days of foods prepared in bulk and served in the traditional, "massive" dining room setting. Today’s administrators are challenged with the "culture change" of creating an intimate dining more conducive to socialization. There’s also a focus on farm fresh food that is prepared to order, wellness programs, and sustainable, greener operations.

Just as no two cultures are exactly alike, "culture change" will be different for each individual community, as defined by the specific desires and preferences of its residents.

Cura Hospitality realizes the need to have multiple options and resources prepared to address community-specific culture changes. That’s why some of the best operators, marketers and clinicians from Cura, work with senior living administrators who serve in advisory roles to help the industry understand the trends and needs of the new senior. Together, they create action plans that address everything from points of dining service to designing greener communities.

According to Cura’s Founder and President, Mitch Possinger, "Our goal is to be a resource for our clients in implementing their culture change initiatives, to help them increase census and be a leader during these challenging economic times."

For example, food service at the new Hanna HealthCare Center at Longwood in Oakmont, PA is now "decentralized" into free-standing country kitchens. Instead of tray-line systems, which limit what healthcare residents can order, residents now receive a variety of fresh food that is plated and prepared-to-order when they are ready to eat.

This new form of service resembles home-style kitchens and allows for a main and alternate entrée to be prepared in the main kitchen and delivered to the country kitchen just prior to serving the residents. Fresh food is held hot in attractive steam tables out of view and surrounded by a large countertop. In addition to the entrees, soups and sandwiches -- as well as quick-serve items -- such as hot dogs and grilled cheese, are easily prepared to order by request. Residents, with the assistance of recreational services staff, also may use the country kitchen to prepare food.

According to Michael K. Haye, executive director of Longwood at Oakmont, residents also look forward to eating in the country kitchen because of its openness to living and activity areas. That increases socialization, mobility (as they need to walk to the dining room) and overall well-being.

Older adults, especially independent living residents also like convenience. For example, at Sherwood Oaks in Cranberry Township, PA, residents requested grab-and-go options, so Cura constructed a cart that offers fruits, soups and sandwiches twice a week. The cart concept was so popular that Sherwood Oaks incorporated a grab-and-go section in their dining room renovations. The grab-and-go section offers a variety of food that’s packaged in bio-based green-ware. Open daily, residents may choose from freshly cut fruit, yogurt with granola, desserts, fresh salads, sandwiches on homemade breads and assorted beverages.

A small area for grab-and-go groceries includes: milk, eggs, boxed cereals, deli meats, loaves of bread and other convenience items.

Older adults are also more aware and better educated on the key health benefits of the food they eat. In fact, it’s important for them to know where their food is grown and harvested. Jamie Moore, director of sourcing and sustainability for Cura, partnered with more than 150 local farms and producers of food that deliver fresh product to our communities through Cura’s FarmSource program.

Moore says that sustainability and designing greener communities continues to challenge us to behave ethically across generations – senior living is no exception. In fact seniors are as active as ever concerning these issues.

For example, The Bridges at Bent Creek in Mechanicsburg, PA, plans to begin its own version of FarmSource. Residents will attend a class instructed by a local greenhouse owner who will give the residents the "know-how" to plant, water, tend and care for their own garden. The "harvest" from the garden will be used by Cura’s executive chef to prepare foods and will be identified with a customized logo when the foods are featured on the menu.

A composter was recently purchased so that the community’s pre-consumer food waste consisting of vegetable waste and woody material (cardboard, leaves and woodchips) can be composted on-site and returned back to the garden.

In addition to National Nutrition Month celebrations, Cura’s clinicians conduct wellness workshops year-round that tackle the specific health issues that affect people of all ages. Topics may include eating for a healthy life, trans-fatty acids and heart disease, exercise and nutrition, diet trends and fads, organic foods, and living with diseases. According to Joe Herman, Cura’s senior director of clinical and nutrition services, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., the dietitians create customized nutrition plans and menus and organize wellness events that provide residents and patients the opportunity to utilize our health experts and take part in health screenings.