Hospitals see a great deal of potential in food service automation to save time and money but more importantly to keep pace with patients’ diverse meal preferences. In fact, 90% of surveyed hospital decision-makers say meal service has a direct impact on patient experience, and about half say they are pursuing automation initiatives, according to a recent study by CBORD Insights. Survey respondents cited several potential benefits, but an interest in increasing food service revenues topped the list—a finding that fits with the tight budgets and rising costs hospitals face today.
In Kentucky, Baptist Health is among those organizations implementing food service automation, and the experience has shown that it can enhance the patient experience while at the same time increase revenue.
Automation is a powerful tool for food service operations. But, like any tool, its effectiveness depends on how it’s used. For Baptist Health, the key to success has been a focus on two basic principles—centralization and data-driven decision-making—and using them to rethink the way food service operates.
The Power of Centralization
Baptist Health operates eight owned hospitals throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana. Up until a year ago, just three of these had some degree of food service automation in place and essentially ran independently. The rest relied on manual processes such as paper food orders, spreadsheets and printed reports. The health system knew it needed a change, so, in a phased approach during 2022 and 2023, it replaced this fragmented approach with centralized enterprise technology. This single food service solution automates point-of-sale, menu planning and patient ordering processes across all Baptist Health hospitals.
Implementation quickly reduced the inefficiencies inherent in the previous fragmented approach. But its impact has gone far beyond the streamlining of specific tasks. The technology enabled the centralization of food service management. This, in turn, opened the door to new ways of working that have resulted in better controls, reduced redundancies and waste, increased standardization, greater economies of scale, and improved inventory tracking.
Another key benefit of centralization is the ability to bring data together into one database versus multiple local databases used previously. In that fragmented approach, with pricing at various Baptist Health cafeterias and coffee shops being managed locally, pricing varied from site to site and would often be suboptimal across the hospital system. Now, the single database gives decision-makers a holistic view of costs and retail sales. This has enabled the organization to optimize pricing and make it consistent, helping to increase sales and protect margins.
At the same time, centralization has allowed Baptist Health to employ a registered dietitian to monitor and maintain the database. Because the dietitian has a perspective on both clinical nutrition and desired outcomes, this approach has proven to be more efficient, helping to ensure data is used effectively to meet the needs of the food service department and patients.
Having a single database also supports the use of analytics tools to better understand operations, trends and performance, as well as to uncover opportunities to increase revenue. Previously, food service directors and executives saw only sporadic, rolled-up metrics. Now, they can view centralized monthly food and nutrition reports that track financial, quality and other metrics. These reports provide a foundation for identifying potential improvements and determining the operational and cultural changes that can enable better performance.
With centralized meal planning and control, along with the increased efficiency of automated food service processes, Baptist Health has revamped room service and retail menus. It can now cost-effectively offer a wider range of options, including more international meals, numerous plant-based offerings and traditional comfort foods such as turkey and meatloaf. This helps the health system stay in step with patients’ increasingly diverse meal preferences, which in turn increases sales in the health system’s eateries. At the same time, the centralized system makes it possible to track food orders and use these data-driven insights to tweak offerings and help ensure Baptist Health keeps up to date with consumer preferences.
Baptist Health’s technology also opens the door to additional revenue opportunities; with a centralized platform, it is relatively easy to
bring on new tools and capabilities. For example, Baptist Health is exploring moving to room service ordering for patients and their guests. Implementing this program will improve patient experience and decrease food cost. More than that, by offering restaurant-quality food that visitors want to purchase—and will purchase—these meals become not only an increased convenience for guests but also provide a source of additional revenue.
Soon, the health system will also offer mobile ordering, allowing patients and visitors to access menus and place orders on their own without staff assistance—a key benefit in an era of staff shortages. And those staff members will also be able to use their cell phones to place cafeteria orders in advance, quickly pick up their food and pay automatically via payroll deduction. For busy healthcare workers, this will help them make the most of their break times; for the hospital, this type of convenience will help increase revenue.
The Broader Payoff: A Better Patient Experience
Boosting revenues is just part of the story. As it has done in other industries, automation has helped Baptist Health not only increase revenue but simultaneously improve the customer experience and increase efficiency to keep costs down.
Patients, of course, are seeing wider choice and convenience in meal service. But the technology also plays a role in patient safety and wellness. Food is critical to helping patients recover, and if they have food that they like, patients will eat well, which contributes to shorter hospital stays and fewer readmissions, according to research published in the March 2022 issue of the journal Exploratory Research in Clinical and Social Pharmacy. In addition, the Baptist Health food service technology is integrated with the health system’s central EHR. This makes it possible to tailor meals to individual dietary requirements related to allergies and medical needs, and to adjust meals as patients move through the continuum of care.
Integration with the EHR also leads to operational benefits. Historically, food service operators did not always know when a patient was discharged or moved to another unit. As a result, meal trays would be delivered but left unused, something that happened with up to 10% of the 48,000 meals per week delivered throughout the eight-hospital system. Now, because of the EHR link, the system automatically “knows” when patients have left, stopping the scheduling of meals for those individuals. This means less wasted food and less time spent unnecessarily moving and cleaning trays.
Finally, a centralized, data-driven approach to automated food service has the potential to enhance a hospital’s brand. Indeed, 77% percent of patients in the CBORD Insights survey said that meals would influence their choice of hospital in the future. With the right approach to automation, healthcare organizations, like Baptist Health, can help ensure food service plays a role in building and maintaining a great reputation.
Lisa Shoopman is associate vice president of food and nutrition services at Baptist Health, covering Kentucky and southern Indiana (lisa.shoopman@bhsi.com).
Baptist Health operates eight owned hospitals throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana. Up until a year ago, just three of these had some degree of food service automation in place and essentially ran independently. The rest relied on manual processes such as paper food orders, spreadsheets and printed reports. The health system knew it needed a change, so, in a phased approach during 2022 and 2023, it replaced this fragmented approach with centralized enterprise technology. This single food service solution automates point-of-sale, menu planning and patient ordering processes across all Baptist Health hospitals.
Implementation quickly reduced the inefficiencies inherent in the previous fragmented approach. But its impact has gone far beyond the streamlining of specific tasks. The technology enabled the centralization of food service management. This, in turn, opened the door to new ways of working that have resulted in better controls, reduced redundancies and waste, increased standardization, greater economies of scale, and improved inventory tracking.
Another key benefit of centralization is the ability to bring data together into one database versus multiple local databases used previously. In that fragmented approach, with pricing at various Baptist Health cafeterias and coffee shops being managed locally, pricing varied from site to site and would often be suboptimal across the hospital system. Now, the single database gives decision-makers a holistic view of costs and retail sales. This has enabled the organization to optimize pricing and make it consistent, helping to increase sales and protect margins.
At the same time, centralization has allowed Baptist Health to employ a registered dietitian to monitor and maintain the database. Because the dietitian has a perspective on both clinical nutrition and desired outcomes, this approach has proven to be more efficient, helping to ensure data is used effectively to meet the needs of the food service department and patients.
Having a single database also supports the use of analytics tools to better understand operations, trends and performance, as well as to uncover opportunities to increase revenue. Previously, food service directors and executives saw only sporadic, rolled-up metrics. Now, they can view centralized monthly food and nutrition reports that track financial, quality and other metrics. These reports provide a foundation for identifying potential improvements and determining the operational and cultural changes that can enable better performance.
With centralized meal planning and control, along with the increased efficiency of automated food service processes, Baptist Health has revamped room service and retail menus. It can now cost-effectively offer a wider range of options, including more international meals, numerous plant-based offerings and traditional comfort foods such as turkey and meatloaf. This helps the health system stay in step with patients’ increasingly diverse meal preferences, which in turn increases sales in the health system’s eateries. At the same time, the centralized system makes it possible to track food orders and use these data-driven insights to tweak offerings and help ensure Baptist Health keeps up to date with consumer preferences.
Baptist Health’s technology also opens the door to additional revenue opportunities; with a centralized platform, it is relatively easy to
bring on new tools and capabilities. For example, Baptist Health is exploring moving to room service ordering for patients and their guests. Implementing this program will improve patient experience and decrease food cost. More than that, by offering restaurant-quality food that visitors want to purchase—and will purchase—these meals become not only an increased convenience for guests but also provide a source of additional revenue.
Soon, the health system will also offer mobile ordering, allowing patients and visitors to access menus and place orders on their own without staff assistance—a key benefit in an era of staff shortages. And those staff members will also be able to use their cell phones to place cafeteria orders in advance, quickly pick up their food and pay automatically via payroll deduction. For busy healthcare workers, this will help them make the most of their break times; for the hospital, this type of convenience will help increase revenue.
The Broader Payoff: A Better Patient Experience
Boosting revenues is just part of the story. As it has done in other industries, automation has helped Baptist Health not only increase revenue but simultaneously improve the customer experience and increase efficiency to keep costs down.
Patients, of course, are seeing wider choice and convenience in meal service. But the technology also plays a role in patient safety and wellness. Food is critical to helping patients recover, and if they have food that they like, patients will eat well, which contributes to shorter hospital stays and fewer readmissions, according to research published in the March 2022 issue of the journal Exploratory Research in Clinical and Social Pharmacy. In addition, the Baptist Health food service technology is integrated with the health system’s central EHR. This makes it possible to tailor meals to individual dietary requirements related to allergies and medical needs, and to adjust meals as patients move through the continuum of care.
Integration with the EHR also leads to operational benefits. Historically, food service operators did not always know when a patient was discharged or moved to another unit. As a result, meal trays would be delivered but left unused, something that happened with up to 10% of the 48,000 meals per week delivered throughout the eight-hospital system. Now, because of the EHR link, the system automatically “knows” when patients have left, stopping the scheduling of meals for those individuals. This means less wasted food and less time spent unnecessarily moving and cleaning trays.
Finally, a centralized, data-driven approach to automated food service has the potential to enhance a hospital’s brand. Indeed, 77% percent of patients in the CBORD Insights survey said that meals would influence their choice of hospital in the future. With the right approach to automation, healthcare organizations, like Baptist Health, can help ensure food service plays a role in building and maintaining a great reputation.
Lisa Shoopman is associate vice president of food and nutrition services at Baptist Health, covering Kentucky and southern Indiana (lisa.shoopman@bhsi.com).