Page 35 - Life Happens in the Kitchen

4. Waited Table Service
a-Serving hot food from steam tables in the dining room:
• banquet style – consider presetting the tables with salads, and pouring beverages upon resident arrival. Offer the hot entrée plated, with dessert served following.
• restaurant menu (point-of-service or preselect choice) – prepare a cycle of restaurant-style menus. Offer your residents either traditional restaurant choice at point- of-service, or the opportunity to preselect their choice the day (or morning) before. Salads, beverages and desserts can be served from serving stations. (See Sample Menu on next page.)
b-Preparing menus or planning for waited table service is time well-spent and rewarded by increased resident choice, dignity, autonomy and satisfaction. With computers, menu preparation is simple and repetitive once the initial cycle is established. Even without
a printed menu, resident choice at point-of-service, will enhance resident satisfaction and intake. While restaurant service does not create home, it surely does enhance the quality of the dining experience. Your menu reflects the foods already available, but the merchandising flair of a menu offers the ultimate in selectivity. Staff training on the finer points of customer service will enhance the dining experience.
c-Waited Table Service maximizes choice as required by Federal Tag 242 “Self-Determination.” There are no regulations prohibiting this type of dining service, as long as foods are always provided according to any therapeutic diets.
d-Mount Holly Nursing Center, a Beverly Healthcare facility in Louisville, KY converted their tray service to waited table service in the dining room. Even though offering the same menu, an ombudsman noted “simply offering alternates as a choice and using waitress-style order taking, allows residents true choice with dignity, without the rejection of refusing a meal already served on a tray.” Pennybyrn at Maryfield in High Point, NC is a CCRC well on the road to households; while awaiting new construction and renovation, they began point-of-service choice at breakfast using a serving kitchen for simple preparation. Residents now give their order to their server, enjoying the same choice at breakfast previously only available in the main dining room for lunch and supper.
Recipe for Success
a-what’s the opportunity – terms/description
b-ups and downs c-regulatory considerations d-stories/examples
STAGE TWO: TRANSFORMATIONAL
Page 29
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