For EVS Managers – What Your Boss Needs to Know!

This year’s Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) conference was, as always, packed with good information. A few things stood out, starting with this one:  The cost of an infection acquired by the patient in your hospital can easily exceed the cost of one FTE!

Of course, we know some factors that work into the equation. Depending on the nature and severity of the infection, the cost varies from a few thousand dollars into the $30,000 and up range. Also, it is difficult in some circumstances to determine the cause of infections. But we should use the financial realities in order to defend requests for appropriate staffing levels.

Our jobs get more challenging by the day, all the more reason to remain subject matter experts, even as we are challenged to continually upgrade our leadership skills so as to have a committed workforce. So keep in mind:

• Many of us concentrate on “high touch” points (light switches, door handles, etc.) but this may lull us into a false sense of security. Change your high-touch lists occasionally, so as to cover more area, and also to let staff know that we do not want to focus excessively on just certain points.
• Be properly staffed and consistent: while unwelcome bugs have a relatively short life of days or weeks (influenza, SARS, rhinovirus), others can remain in the room for months (VRE, MRSA).
• Wet disinfecting wipes need to be….wet! Be sure that your staff members understand that extending the life of these wipes is dangerous. Following manufacturer specifications on dwell time, but not using proper tools, will result in failure.
• Cleaning practices must be absolutely thorough. That seems self-evident, but if you are not cultivating good management practices on your leadership team, and demonstrating a presence around the building, you are taking this on faith. Don’t.

So we need to be infection control experts, a field which evolves daily, and we need to cover those meetings and emails and phone calls, and we need to be best-in-class leaders. If your operational practices are coming along well but you are still struggling with satisfaction results, the missing link may be not in what your people do but in how they demonstrate (sell) what they do. This is why we tell EVS staff members and managers: you have one of the toughest jobs in the building.

So be engaged, network, and look for help in doing a complex and critically important job!

Steve McKenna
Success Coach
DM&A

DM&A in Australia!

As a continuation from a previous blog, a group of coaches went to Australia to “pitch” Room Services at the Mater Health System and have come away with a signed contract!

The first Healthcare Room Service Project in Australia will be managed and executed by the DM&A Team in conjunction with the great Food Service Leadership Team at the Mater Health System. This initiative is led by David Terrill who has been promoted from Food Services Manager to  Room Service Project Manager. His successor is 31 year-old Liam O’Toole, who has a fantastic passion for food and service. He is a great choice for that job, and the timing is perfect.

Della Dunbar and I went to Australia after our Room Service “Go Live” in Hawaii on 8/23. We have been working in Hawaii for just over a year on the Room Service project for KP Moanalua, and their opening was a huge success. Since Hawaii is on the way to Australia, we planned our first culinary and menu visit to be in tandem with the Hawaii project.

The Mater is located in the beautiful city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia – a city voted into “Top Ten” best cities to live and work. Brisbane is a melting pot of ethnic backgrounds, religions, and foods from around the world. So many different kinds of cuisines! I had grilled kangaroo for the first time on this trip, and it tasted like (not chicken) farm-raised venison – sweet and tender!

In general, we found the people to be genuine, caring, considerate, gracious, and curious about us and our backgrounds.

Some interesting differences we noted:

• Many cooks are trained and certified by the government and it is the desired path if cooking is your career decision.
• Almost all food prepared in Australia is from scratch. Not very many convenience foods are even available. They call hot cereals porridge and refer to semolina instead of cream of wheat and oatmeal.
• The bacon they use has the eye of the pork loin in it as well as belly strips.
• They serve grilled tomatoes year round mostly at breakfast, which I enjoyed daily.
• Many curried dishes and wet dishes are served in Australia.
• Afternoon tea services are still considered normal.

Follow our Australia blogs in the future to find out more about our hospital Room Service project in Australia that DM&A is contracted to design and deliver. Whether you are in the United States, South Pacific, or Europe and beyond, let DM&A help design your Room Service Project so we can help you be the first in your town, state, or country!

Chef Ron Sabatini, CEC
Director of Culinary Operations
DM&A

Overcoming Fear and Anxiety in the Evolving World of Healthcare Food Service

As human beings, I think we only enjoy change and can really embrace it when it’s something we ourselves put in motion.

Food Service Directors along with hospital C-Suite Executives expect and create change. We make changes in how we do business for many reasons. We are constant change managers.

However, the average food service worker does not look forward to or embrace change the way we do. They fear it. It bothers them. They are untrusting of the whole thing. Even though they have heard the term “Room Service” for years it is not until somebody comes along and really “moves their cheese” that is becomes real.

And the more they dwell on it, what they really want to know is:

• How is this gonna affect my hours?
• Will I have to work harder?
• Are my days off going to change?
• Am I going to like this?
• Will I be able to do this new job?

Of course the answer is probably “Yes” to all these questions. And when they find that out they are of course more scared and concerned that the job they knew – the way it was and what we have always done – is going away. It’s changing. And they don’t know yet what it feels like. Or more specifically what a day in the life of the new job will feel like.

At DM&A, our coaches know this. We see it all over the country and outside the 50 states. It seems that when it comes to change people around the country react very similarly.

This is why we coach and train all the staff well ahead of time on what a day in the life of your new job will be like. We train them. We coach them. We give them great scripting to prepare them for what’s coming. We work with them side-by-side each day of the new Room Service opening helping them learn their jobs.

We think there is only one way to manage the anxiety and stress that you and your staff will experience in a room service project…

Be well trained and prepared!

Chef Ron Sabatini, CEC
Director of Culinary Operations
DM&A

What Hospital Administrators Can Learn from the Hotel Industry

by Gregory Gorgone, CDM, CFPP

Welcome to the days one can go to their favorite fast food restaurant and eat a fresh salad, to the day when you can go to the local grocery store and pick up fresh roasted meats and freshly baked breads, when you can enjoy a meal in one of dozens of nationally branded restaurants that are clean and have stylish interiors or when you can go to a local hotel or resort and enjoy have a wonderful dining experience.

At a time when there are is such a variety of options for great food and pleasant dining experiences, why is it that when you walk into a typical hospital cafeteria you feel as if you have walked into a time warp of 30 years ago? Worse still, is to be admitted to the hospital as a patient, knowing among the many other stresses you face, you can look forward to a tray of bland, overcooked and poorly presented food.

So why is it in a time when the Food Network is one of the most popular channels on TV, hospital food continues to be the butt of so many jokes?  Why is hospital food so poor and why is it that it seems to be accepted as “the way it is”?  Why does it take the mayor of New York City to introduce a law to improve food in public and private hospitals? Can you imagine what it would be like to go out to eat if the restaurant industry never changed their menus, service styles or interior designs?  Can you imagine if hotels, resorts, quick serve restaurants, full serve restaurants and grocery stores did not step up to meet the changing expectations of their customers? They would go out of business.

But not so for a hospital cafeteria.  Food service departments in a hospital are often looked at as only a support department to the main game which is medical treatment of in-patients and out-patients.  Fair enough. Medical care is the reason hospitals exist and clearly this is the correct priority and the leaders in the hospital world have their priorities  straight investing in doctors, nurses, equipment and new ORs and EDs, but they are also leaving money on the table. Instead of a line item expense, the food and beverage service in a hospital can become not only a income center, but also, a marketing tool of good will and buzz in the larger community.

Back in the days when Holiday Inns were along every highway and new Marriott hotels were being built in urban areas, the main game was guest rooms.  Selling a room for the night was where the profit was.  “Heads in the bed” was the focus of their business.  Oh, and by the way, we have a coffee shop downstairs in case you are hungry.  Food and beverage departments in the hotel business were viewed as an amenity to support more heads in the beds. And their restaurants and cafés were boring and most of their guests left the building to find a place to eat.  The hotel concierge knew all the best places to dine as they looked down their noses at the hotel coffee shop.  After all, the food and beverage department was just a support department of the hotel.  A break- even activity at best.

As construction costs climbed higher and higher to build hotels, every square inch of the design was looked at carefully.  The pressure was on for hotel restaurants to not only pay for themselves, but to pay back the costs to construct the space they operated in.   Now F&B Managers and Chefs had to drive business into their restaurants.  Now excellent food and service was the buzz.  The game was not only to attract their own hotel guests to their dining rooms, but to reach out to the local community and invite them over for a great meal.  Instead of being a line item expense on the hotel’s P&L statements, Food and Beverage Departments were becoming profit centers and it was expected for them to run in the black.   Today, some of the best restaurants in the country operate out of hotels and resorts.  The best culinary students are being recruited out of school and now work in the hotels and resorts across the US.   Hotel’s now fill guest rooms with the promise of new culinary adventures delivered right to their room or in one of their stylish top rated restaurants on the 25^th floor overlooking the town.

The majority of income and profit still come from hotel rooms being filled, but now food and beverage departments are part of their marketing plans to fill those rooms. Their cafés and restaurants pull in local business creating an even better reputation for the hotel.  When the locals are asked what hotel to stay in, they tell their family and friends about the great local hotel that serves excellent food and delivers great service.

As we come forward to the year 2012, we see hospitals struggling with their income and profits (surplus).  We see budgets getting tighter every quarter.  Construction costs are even higher.  Meanwhile, the food in the café is mediocre at best, the food served on plastic trays to patients goes uneaten, food costs are too high, the cooks and servers in the nutritional support department do not know they are really a food and beverage department.  Very few hospitals have trained chefs to run their kitchen and develop menus.

The solution is rather an easy one.

It is time for hospitals to stop looking at their nutritional support departments as a line item expense and start looking at them for what they can be; a financially viable Food and Beverage Department with the purpose of delivering high quality food to their patients and serving great food in their cafes to their staff and visitors.

The action plan is as follows:

1- Hire a professional food and beverage consulting firm with vast experience in healthcare.

2- Change the name of their nutritional support department to the Food and Beverage Department.

3- Hire a trained, experienced Chef for the department.

4- Revise and update the goals and objectives for the department that include patient food satisfaction of 90% or better and a café with the reputation as one of the best and healthiest restaurants in the area for lunch.

5- Have a full departmental assessment completed by a professional consulting firm who can propose an investment in the department with a 5 year ROI that is FTE neutral in meals served per man hour.

6- Put a plan in place to turn the department into a revenue center.

7- Train the management team and the staff to be culinary driven professionals delivering high quality nutritious meals to all their patients and to their café customers.

About the author:

Greg Gorgone is a graduate and former Chef Instructor of Johnson & Wales University with over 28 years of experience in multi-unit foodservice management, event planning, banquets and catering.  As a customer service and culinary driven professional with a successful track record as a Hotel General Manager, Greg has brought his unique insights and leadership style to the healthcare industry to deliver a more patient centered experience while keeping focused on financial objectives.

Greg is an Executive Success Coach with DM&A-WEBB, the largest and most experienced food service consultants in the healthcare industry.  http://www.dmawebb.com

AHF 2012 Conference a Success!

DM&A-WEBB was a Double Diamond Sponsor at the annual AHF Conference last week in Miami. What a whirlwind of Activity!

A great conference well attended by operators and vendors alike. DM&A-WEBB was represented by Bill Klein (CEO), Ron Sabatini (Culinary Division), Nancy Thomas (Sales Division), Gina Brinegar (Design Division), Char Norton (Executive Success Coach), and Mary Keysor (Silver Plate Winner and Executive Success Coach). Between manning our vendor booth and Lunch ‘N Learn sessions we also attended conference sessions for our own enrichment. We attended and participated in all the events including the New Member Meet & Greet which was well organized and orchestrated. The breakout sessions and Lunch ‘N Learn classes contained excellent topics and each of us were able to take a great deal away from the conference. The weather was a little drab but the information inside the conference certainly was not. The networking opportunities for DM&A-WEBB were countless. Meeting new colleagues and reconnecting with relationships of past was very fulfilling for me personally as well as for the DM&A-WEBB team. It has been over 10 years since I last attended an AHF/HFM/ASHFSA conference and I had lost track of a great many people. Now that the two legacy organizations have combined I am hopeful to stay current in my attendance and participation in AHF every year. We all thought the conference was well organized and very well executed. DM&A-WEBB looks forward to its continued partnership and new relationships through this outstanding organization.

Connecting with so many of DM&A-WEBB clients at AHF was also a big win for us. And probably the biggest surprise came from so many folks asking about employment with DM&A-WEBB. It seems that many are interested in coming to work for the largest healthcare foodservice & design team in the world. Talk about a life time achievement award! I tip my hat to Don & Jean Miller for building a one man show into a company that highly qualified people want to be associated with. Kudos Don!

Chef Ron Sabatini, CEC
Director, Culinary Division
DM&A

DM&A Goes to Australia!

In my years with DM&A I’ve commented to many of my industry colleagues about all the places in the United States including Hawaii that I have visited and worked in. These are places that I most likely would have never seen. I’ve probably been to 35 states or better. And now I am happy to say that I have seen Australia!

Yes that’s right.  DM&A Goes to Australia!

Potential clients in Australia made contact with Bill Klein our CEO and he called on a small group to accompany him to the Outback. John Giambarresi and Ron Sabatini from DM&A and Doug DeLuca from Singer Equipment all joined Bill in LA and we started our 15 hour plane journey to the Outback together.

Our work in Australia consisted of room service assessments for two major facilities in two cities Sydney and Brisbane and a conglomerate of long term care facilities based out of Brisbane also.

What a whirlwind of work and travel activity! We met so many wonderful folks from all over Australia. We saw many folks in food service jobs who have the same fun and challenges that we have on this side of the pond. From staff line workers to food service leadership we all were able to see similarities between the Aussies and us in our professional work places.

We met and established an equipment vendor to work with over there and it seems that many pieces of equipment they buy come from the US. These folks were great to us and helped us negotiate around the country by having one of their engineers cart us around and keep us within our tight schedule. Special thanks go out to Bill Sinclair from Spyril.

As for the food…Well, I have to say I was impressed and had a full belly the whole time. We ate well. We identified foods and cuisine from all over the world that are now part of the Australian culture. Food influences included, Asian, Italian, British, and some authentic Australian items both borrowed and created within. Some food items we saw frequently in the two cities we worked were: Meats and entrees in sauces like ragouts and stews, lamb served the same way and or broiled on the BBQ (barbie) and on cold salads, great fish items offered like barramundi, blue eyed cod, and prawns, oysters served in many ways, curry-style items in pies, stews, and ragouts- meat croquettes, and assorted meat pies were a mainstay of the country. We noticed a refreshing amount of chutneys and fresh fruit.

One of the strict rules in Australia is not to let plants, seeds and vegetables in the country. We asked locals and were told that most of the food consumed in Australia is grown and or harvested in Australia. Talk about sustainability….

Beyond this we noticed many similarities between our two countries from food to television to vehicles to politics.  It was a great work trip with some pockets of time to explore the city our own as well. I will add these memories to my others for all the places I have seen and I remain hopeful that the folks we met with in Australia become clients of DM&A and I get to return for some great diving, fishing, hunting and then maybe get some work done for DM&A as well!  Just kidding!

Respectfully submitted,
Chef Ron Sabatini, CEC
Director of Culinary Operations
DM&A

“There’s an app for that!”

It seems like whatever we want to know today, there is a smart phone app for it.  Information technology is changing how we do business and how we relate to the world. The same is true for all kinds of food and nutrition information.  There are apps for almost anything from weight loss and exercise programs to ingredients in foods for those who have allergies or special dietary needs.

One of the newest programs out there is “Honest Label Foods Scanner.”   Upload a picture of the barcode on a food and get all of the manufacturer’s information.   According to its developer/marketer, it lets users (including those on restricted or specialized diets) select ingredients they want to avoid, which are flagged by a warning system. It also lets the user customize calorie and other nutrient parameters based on their own needs.  In the works for this app will be the ability to access information about ingredients’ origin, if pesticides are used in producing them, and genetic modifications, if any. Once the barcode is snapped, the app (which works on both iOS and Android mobile devices) instantly generates an easy-to-read digital readout or “label.”

Another creative app is Mealsnap. Take a picture of a food, upload it into this app and get the caloric value back.  This app does not always recognize the portion or the food item so you can get some wildly divergent numbers back for your calories.  It may not be accurate, but it is fun.

When my eating starts getting out of control, I usually fire up the Lose It app to keep tabs on my calories for a few days.  Of course, it’s a hassle to have to manually enter the foods I eat so there is FoodScanner, a new app that scans package bar codes for quick and easy calorie logging.  Does it work? It does. Is it just as cool as it sounds? It is. Will it earn a spot in one of Apple’s commercials? Almost certainly. The program includes a huge database of brand-name and generic foods, including thousands of items from popular restaurants, so it’s relatively easy to log everything you eat. Plus, it automatically remembers foods and meals you’ve eaten so they’re easier to enter on subsequent days. You can even add custom foods, exercises, and recipes to the database.

Even traditional companies like Weight Watcher International have apps to help you follow their program.  The app includes points from the Weight Watchers data base, recipes, logs for your points and exercise, suggestions and motivational tips.  All of this is designed to make following a diet easier and fit this information into your busy lifestyle.

Kathy Lindow, MS, RD, CNSD
Success Coach
DM&A