The tablets function similarly to palm-size handheld computers, also known as personal digital assistants, or PDAs, in that data is entered on the computer's screen via stylus, or touch, input. The tablets, though, are about the size of a sheet of letter-size paper. Plus, they feature wireless transmission technology that eliminates data entry steps and speeds both meal production and delivery times.
By contrast, palm-tops require data to be uploaded via wired network to host computers.
According to Sharon Cox, MA, RD, CDM (HFM), dir. of food and nutrition services at MSKCC, there will be about a dozen tablet PCs in use for foodservice sometime this fall. She indicates that the new system, once fully operational, can potentially shave another 10 minutes off "guaranteed" meal delivery time, which now takes 40 minutes from time of order.
Talk and walk: "Currently, our room service associates take down the patient's order at bedside but then walk to a remote location on the floor to enter it into the computer which transmits it to the diet office. Using the wireless tablet, these associates can take the order and trigger it from the patient's room, thus kicking service up a notch," Cox points out.
MSKCC's room service program began as a pilot in May 2001, with full-house coverage gradually phased-in and up-and-running by August 2002. Initially, patients called the diet office, waited for the call to be answered and gave their order. Presently, a room service associate is stationed on each of the facility's 10 floors, providing coverage from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The associate responds to nursing's call system which is triggered by the patient, goes to the patient's room to take the order, then walks to the computer terminal on the floor to enter the request.
Hi-tech help: The nutrition dept.'s use of tablets is part of a hospital-wide effort to implement the technology. "All sorts of technology is helping us make service better and better. If you think about the process (which includes the diet office, the kitchen or the associate on the floor) to receive an order and send it to the kitchen via a network vs. walking to deliver it, you realize the impact," Cox says. "We have three areas where production was occurring. Now we have a printer in each place so each person has their own production sheet to prepare an order."
These three areas include:
- The hot production area where a ticket reflects only hot food ordered.
- Cold production with only cold items ticketed.
- The expediter's station where a ticket is printed with all items the patient ordered, thus enabling a person to check the tray.
The tablets and diet office computers will use Computrition's menu management system (already in place), which helps verify compliancy. "Via computers we can identify the patient's diet order. This allows us to pull up a menu specific to their diet; a non-compliant item is highlighted," she notes.
imes have changed: At the outset, when the room service system ran manually, delivery time was 15 to 20 mins. longer than the 40-minute service goal, even with two additional temps brought in to help. Now, with computerization, fewer people are needed and new hires have a computer background rather than foodservice.