Customer Profiles

Central Maine Medical Center

The Food & Nutrition Services Team at Central Maine Medical Center, a 250 bed tertiary care facility located in Lewiston, Maine and part of Central Maine HealthCare, recently spent some time with us discussing their recent move to room service.  They also shared how incorporating Common CENTS’ GEMserve solution eased this major transition for the Hospital.  Louise Hall, Director of Food and Nutrition Services, spearheaded this initiative, spearheaded the evaluation of the most effective and potentially successful methods of incorporating this new meal service approach at their formerly traditional, entirely manual patient nutrition services operation.  She stated without hesitation, that while this move required a major adjustment relative to the scope of responsibilities and tasks managed by food production, nutrition services and clinical staff, the selection and implementation of GEMserve  eased the process drastically.

Hall shared that they began considering the move to room service back in 2006 and after ample investigation and research, along with the guidance of Industry Consultant Richard Bresnahan from Healthcare Hospitality Solutions, they decided to move forward with GEMserve in 2007.  Going live with their new room service environment at Central Maine in December of 2008, Hall stated that the Common CENTS Team was available every step of the way to ensure their operation’s success.  As a result of the extensive planning and preparation, along with the support of the Common CENTS Team and resources provided by Bresnahan, the Food & Nutrition Services Team welcomed the new technology openly. 

The team was thrilled to be able to provide a heightened level of service and flexibility to their patient population. They found new moms were often the most excited recipients, as they were now able to focus on their infants’ needs, as well as tending to their commonly erratic schedules, while remaining confident they wouldn’t be overlooked relative to their own nutritional needs.  Throughout this entire process, Central Maine Medical Center moved from evaluating patient satisfaction from Press-Ganey to Picker.  While this resulted in increased difficulty to track specific metrics surrounding the impact food and nutrition services had on patient satisfaction, the team assigned Patient Representatives who diligently interacted with patients and were able to report glowing feedback.  They also found that because patients were informed they could order anything they wanted at any time, assuming it was allowed on their respective diets, they also noticed that patients began ordering menu items that would meet their immediate satiety needs, resulting in them ordering less overall.  

In addition to the immediate impact room service had on patient satisfaction, the effect the automation component had on their ability to make the overall transition to room service was clearly evident, both in terms of improving production workflow, as well as on driving an impressive decrease in bottom line costs, even in the first year of implementation.  Hall states that in the first year of using GEMserve to manage their room service program, Central Maine decreased their food costs by $100,000, as a result of eliminating assembly of 1,300 wasted, late, or duplicated trays. 

Outside of the Diet Office, Common CENTS’ GEMserve also simplified the workflow in food production.  The Kitchen Display System was of huge benefit to culinary staff, as they were given the ability to quickly identify the quantity and variety of orders coming through as a result of GEMserve’s sophisticated yet incredibly easy to use color-coded system.  Cooks could view the composite screen at any point to view their kitchen tickets in total, to consolidate tasks required for multiple tickets, as well as be informed of menu items selected that had longer preparatory times for them to remain ahead of the curve. 

Proper implementation of GEMserve was aided by Common CENTS’ expert Implementation Team, whom Hall claims exceeded her team’s expectations in every respect.  She stated that from consideration of which solution to select, through the launch of the implementation and go-live to date, she feels as though Common CENTS is more than a solutions provider, but rather, “a good, solid business partner who not only has a unique, comprehensive understanding of and willingness to listen to customer needs, but is interested in investing in and ensuring our continued success.”

Elliot Hospital

Witnessing a greater level of patient satisfaction measured in Press Ganey scores, staff satisfaction and a tangible decrease in food costs, within the first year of implementation, The Food & Nutrition Services Department at Elliot Hospital, a 265 bed facility in Manchester, NH, is more than just pleased with their new implementation of Common CENTS’ Room Service solution, GEMserve, they’re ecstatic!  The automation of meal delivery that began in February of 2010 is the icing on the cake for the Food & Nutrition Department which now has the customer service tool they need to showcase their impressive culinary talent. 

Planning for this implementation began five years ago under the supervision of Joe Stanislaw, Director of Food and Nutrition.  Stanislaw first began by building an interdisciplinary team of professionals.  Then he and his team conducted a self analysis of their current system and infrastructure and began investigating the array of solutions available in the marketplace, as well as surveying several facilities that had implemented GEMserve to identify key methods of achieving the smoothest roll out possible, while not disturbing their patient population in any way throughout the process.

 Moving from a manual, traditional cardex system where paper menus were distributed, then collected from patients for the following days’ meals, to a fully automated, on-demand room service model for all but their two psych units, was a huge challenge.  Joe Stanislaw commented on how supportive and helpful the Common CENTS Team was throughout the entire process, not only in being available to his team, but in collaborating with Elliot Hospital’s Information Technology Team to ensure the implementation and maintenance of the system and servers was and continues to be as seamless as possible.

Stanislaw also ensured the move to Room Service would be a win-win not only for his patients, but for departmental staff and nursing as well.  The timing and delivery of trays and its impact on medicinal intake was of particular concern.  To assuage any fears, he provided nursing with unlimited licenses to GEMserve so they could familiarize themselves with the meal ordering and delivery process, discover when their patients had placed an order, as well as trained Hospitality Aids to notify nursing in units when a tray had been delivered to their floor.  This empowered both didactic and nursing staff, simplified processes, while promoting patient services synergies between the respective departments.

The impact this has had not only on the patients and Food and Nutrition Services, but on the entire Hospital, has been significant.  Not only are patients more satisfied, being able to order exactly what they want, when they want, they are reflecting this in patient satisfaction and Press Ganey scores.  Before Elliot moved to Room Service, the Hospital’s Press Ganey scores were hovering in the 78-79^th percentiles.  Since the move to room service, leveraging the many benefits of GEMserve to support the Department in successfully making the transition, Elliot Hospital has increased their Press Ganey score to over 90 percent!  This has had such an impact on the facility, that Press Ganey sent the Hospital a Certificate of Achievement for being able to markedly improve their scores in such a short time span.

Moreover, patient satisfaction isn’t the only thing that’s improved since room service made its entrance.  Stanislaw claims that food costs and waste have dropped drastically, even beyond his forecasted expectations.  In the first fiscal year of room service implementation, his plan was to reduce his food cost budget by $80,000.  However, by offering the flexibility to allow patients to order precisely what they prefer to eat, in the first Quarter of their fiscal year, they have exceeded their projected savings beyond their initial estimation.  While labor costs have increased slightly, Stanislaw chose not to add any FTE’s to support the move to Room Service. The team has also identified ways to balance out the labor costs as they continue to monitor the success of their Room Service program and find areas where the degree of labor they thought they may need, wasn’t necessary as a result of his comprehensive cross-training of staff. 

Ultimately, the Food & Nutrition Services team may be the happiest customers of all.  Beyond being able to support and service happier, contented patients, staff enjoy the added benefit of learning new technical skills, as well as breaking up the traditional monotony of patient menu processing by spending a portion of their shifts in the Call Center and the rest on the floors, interacting with patients as Hospitality Aids.  Culinary staff, many of whom came from more commercial environments, are energized by working in a more hospitality centric environment; preparing fresh, customized meals “a la minute.” 

The benefits of Elliot Hospital’s move to Room Service are quickly being realized, even in the initial stages of the roll out.  Stanislaw confirms they are well on their way to meeting all the metrics established for the implementation and that Common CENTS has been fantastic at working with his team to ensure the project, technology adoption and implementation have been as seamless as possible.  While an undertaking of this magnitude is rarely without its challenges, one thing’s for certain.  GEMserve’s robust and comprehensive functionality, matched by Common CENTS’ supportive Team, will continue to be of service to Elliot Hospital, its patients and staff, for years to come.                

Maine General Medical Center

MaineGeneral Medical Center, a two hospital facility health system in Maine with another site in the works, incorporated GEMserve approximately 2 years ago after the decision was made to move to room service.  For the two campuses, comprised of Augusta, a 118 bed conventional facility operating a 1 week traditional menu cycle and Thayer, a 140 bed site that had been operating on a cook/chill platform, forgoing both systems to adopt Room Service was no simple feat.  Fortunately, with the purchase of GEMserve and corporate partnership and support of CommonCENTS Solutions, the process was simplified greatly and the MaineGeneral team hasn’t looked back.

Jean Gauthier, Food & Nutrition Director for MaineGeneral, and April Hay, Clinical Nutrition Manager, both explained that they had considered moving to room service with their respective teams for about 5 years, and in the process diligently researched the leading providers of room service technology in the acute healthcare foodservice arena.  Gauthier found CommonCENTS’ GEMserve solution to be the most user friendly for her team, liked the integration to their Point-of-Sale system, and Hay appreciated the ease by which the format of GEMserve allowed her staff to incorporate a nutritional education element to patient ordering.  She also stated that GEMserve’s allergy monitoring functionality was a great feature as well.

Relative to tangible benefits realized from the incorporation of room service and GEMserve at MaineGeneral, the substantial impact it has had on both patient satisfaction and cost savings has been tremendous.  Before room service, Gauthier stated that MaineGeneral had been fighting to stay within the 60^th percentile in terms of their Press Ganey scores.  Both Food & Nutrition Services knew what they needed to do to have a direct impact on improving their scores, along with their overall patient satisfaction – and they didn’t hesitate in getting Clinical staff and the rest of the MaineGeneral team on board.  Employees were disheartened from delivering food to patients they weren’t interested in eating or didn’t fit within their set of personal preferences, if patients were even available to eat in the first place.  A drastic change needed to take place!

After receiving budgetary approval and permission to move forward from Hospital Administration, she started on the path to not only evaluating the best automation solutions available to support her team, but decided to also re-interview her staff to make sure they’d fit the bill and possess the flexibility required to adopt the new services they’d be offering to patients - along with the added responsibility that went with it.  As a result of the changes required to successfully incorporate room service as the new de rigueur meal service approach, Gauthier determined it best to not only ensure her team was up to speed, but developed a thorough training program, including new scripting for every aspect of the patients’ ordering and meal delivery experience, along with restructuring several positions within Food & Nutrition Services.  The good news is that the planning, education and research the Food & Nutrition Management Team performed and provided paid off.  Throughout the room service implementation, they didn’t lose a single employee and more importantly, hospital staff both in and beyond their departments were completely on-board and excited.

Initial training on GEMserve comprised of the CommonCENTS team spending two days with supervisory staff, who then disseminated the information to their respective teams in the call center, production, hospitality hosts and beyond.  The MaineGeneral Team claims that throughout the process, they felt extremely well supported by CommonCENTS, especially considering the added challenge of them being the first CommonCENTS customer to launch a truly virtual call center, serving both the Augusta and Thayer sites.

The results have been tremendous.  No longer are they struggling to stay in the 60^th percentile – MaineGeneral has maintained their 99th percentile patient satisfaction scores for the past three Quarters!  When asked what caused the dramatic improvements, Gauthier said it was a combination of factors, “Primarily the system (GEMserve), as it serves as the foundation for allowing our team to succeed and interact with patients as needed; but the true key to our increase in patient satisfaction, is really their ability to order when they’re hungry.  We’ve achieved a 25% reduction in waste, while also being granted the flexibility to incorporate more exciting features on our menu, items such as Maine Lobster rolls, savory haddock, fish chowder and the like.  We never would have been able to include those items in our foodservice budget previously.”  They’ve also added seasonally appropriate or themed menu items, such as butternut squash and apple soup, pumpkin mousse, and patients’ receptivity has been resoundingly positive.

How has this all been achieved?  It started with getting all Hospital Departments informed and on the same page.  The Food &Nutrition team took the time to meet with all departments the move to Room Service would effect.  She ensured they were involved in the decision and roll-out from the very beginning.  They also spent a full day at both Augusta and Thayer and promoted a Taste Test Day, where all hospital staff could taste, evaluate and enjoy their product(s), so all could speak to the quality of the food being served.

The entire process has changed the perception of Food & Nutrition Services to hospital staff, while negating the age-old notion of “institutional” foodservice.  Newly appointed Nutrition Care Partners help patients make delicious and nutritious selections and GEMserve’s simple tracking of patient likes, dislikes and allergies has greatly simplified the process.  The Nutrition Team supports patients by allowing them to order either via the call center or with assistants from the Nutrition Care Partners using a tablet.  They can order on-demand or up to 3 meals in advance, should patients or their families wish to do so for them.  As a result, the announcement was extremely well received by Nursing.

The Dietitians at both sites have truly enjoyed how simple GEMserve is to use relative to tracking patient nutritional intake, along with the ability to add notes and run various reports in the system, such as the missed meal report, “needs assist” report, and more.  Production staff has benefited greatly as well.  They are able to view the meal order queue by wave for them to be able to plan ahead, as well as consolidate production tasks required for multiple meal orders.  Another added benefit of GEMserve is the ability to link a guest tray to a patient tray, also improving patient satisfaction and those that care for them.  With their old clinical, manual system, they had to rely on staff for manually correcting diets which was extremely time and labor intensive, all performed now automatically.

Ultimately, the new focus on one tray, one patient at a time has increased the level of service provided to patients dramatically.  Instead of being perceived as mere tray deliverers, Nutrition Care Partners & Customer Service Associates now feel they have a more instrumental role in the patient care process.  The resulting increase not only has had an impact on patient satisfaction, but staff satisfaction and morale has soared as well.  Food production staff are now able to see the impact of their contributions, as they’ve shifted from responsibility over a particular component of the tray, to the entire tray assembly itself.  Case in point…Gauthier shared in closing that a Cook from the Augusta campus had worked there for 40 years and had never seen the end result of his production responsibilities.  Now, as he cooks a piece of chicken, for example, he doesn’t place it in a cook/chill bag and send it off to the tumbler.  Rather, he is able to plate it, garnish it and in the process, has drastically increased his level of pride in knowing that he isn’t simply preparing chicken breasts, but is preparing a beautiful meal for a patient in need.  The quality of care and nutrition hasn’t been the only aspect that has been affected; staff feel like they received a promotion, both in terms of how they are perceived, as well as in how they feel about themselves and the team around them.  That just may be the sweetest impact of all.