Independant
vs Shared Food Services
In summary, number of overall trends occurring in health care
are causing us to rethink and reengineer the means by which
food service can be provided. Funding realities are changing
- while at the same time, fiscal responsibility, patient satisfaction,
quality and health care reform are becoming high priorities.
A number of restructuring initiatives are driving changes,
such as the regionalization of health care management in Canada's
Provinces and Communities. Within these changes, health care
providers have the chance to be proactive in determining how
the future of nutrition and food service should be directed
and planned - independent or shared?
Shared food services is an evolutionary process rather than
a fixed concept. It is not simply a central commissary (although
centralized food procurement and production may be part of a
shared food service initiative). The functions normally shared
or rationalized in a multi facility based food service system
include:
-
Standardization of menus and meal delivery
formats for specific customer groups;
-
Rationalization of clinical nutritional
care practices;
-
Common purchasing;
-
Shared food production/procurement;
-
Centralized meal assembly, distribution
and ware washing;
-
Joint development of computerization,
- hardware and software
- databases;
-
Shared management and administrative procedures;
-
Development of a system wide human resources
plan; and
-
Strategies for increased revenues in retail
services.
In its most highly evolved form, shared food services offers
the following benefits:
-
Maximum potential for reduced food services
operating costs;
-
Reduced capital investment (in terms of
individual replacement of existing dated kitchens and equipment);
-
Possible freeing up of space within the
participating facilities for other users;
-
Enhanced purchasing power;
-
Enhanced quality by meeting new service
demands of a wide group of participants;
-
Making new technologies affordable through
collective utilization;
-
Making available a wider range of pre-prepared
high quality food products;
-
Making service formats and timing more
flexible;
-
Allowing costs for nutrition and food
services to become more "variable" dependent on
usage by the participating hospitals and organization, and
-
Possible reduction in non-patient food
service deficits
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