Culture Change Sweeps the Country


Another goal when making changes in dietary is to offer flexible meal times. In person-centered care, the point is to de-institutionalize meal times and the dining experience. To facilitate residents sleeping in later in the morning, we must develop systems to serve meals to our residents at the times they choose to eat. We will have to become more flexible in how we think about food service. And as residents come and go we may have to further tweak our dining services. Many healthcare facilities have decided to implement flexible meal schedules such as the following: breakfast will be offered between 7:30am to 9:30am weekdays and maybe slightly later on the weekends; lunch will be served between 11:30am and 1:30pm; and dinner will be served between 4:30pm until 6:30pm for those who prefer it later. Flexible meal times offers choice and freedom to residents and simply makes the meal experience better, because they can choose when they prefer to eat.
 
We also need to think out of the box and be innovative and creative in how food is served. Some of the more common dinning styles utilized are buffet-style dining, restaurant-style dining, 24-hour room service, and open access to food. These styles offer more choice to residents and can make meal times more enjoyable. Buffet-style dinning involves a hot steam table in a central dining room or placed in multiple sites within the facility. Many facilities have indicated that the buffet works very well for breakfast. Restaurant-style dinning can be used in the main dining room and those employees working in the dining room can wear chef coats and black pants, to create a restaurant atmosphere. A restaurant-style menu is placed on each table and residents order whatever they wish from it. The menu can be changed once a month, quarterly or seasonally or even weekly! Stellar also implements an all time favorites menu that is available whenever the kitchen is open.  Many facilities have always offered room service, but perhaps never called it "room service" and indicated that it was available 24-hours a day. This is a nice feature for residents who are up at night and prefer to sleep throughout the day. It is also a nice option for family visitors who work odd shifts and visit their loved one during late evening hours. And finally, all residents, family and staff may have access to snacks 24-hours a day by creating or building small, kitchenette areas in the facility. And, don't stock it with just healthy snacks. Stock it with what residents and families want.
 
Other innovations in dining include a private dining room for special occasions, dining areas that have a warm and comfortable appearance, bread- and cookie-baking throughout the day to create a more homelike atmosphere, and kitchenettes complete with microwaves, small refrigerators, coffee pots, and storage space for snacks.
 
Dietary services are important in healthcare and culture change is providing great ideas concerning how to become more innovative and creative with food and how it is served. Food is vital to life and the kinds of food and how it is served should enhance the quality of life for residents in long-term care.

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