The cafeteria in the 240-bed Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif., is in need of a renovation, according to Joyce Goldstein, director of food and nutrition services. A renovation project is in the works for 2013, but until then, Goldstein has gotten creative to keep up with customer demand.

"On our employee survey, they were saying that they wanted a grill. We have an old-fashioned cafeteria with a single line. It's 40 years old. There was no place to put a grill outside and we were constrained by the county not allowing us to put a grill on the serving line because of the venting and other regulations. Plus, there was just no room.
So we made new out of old. We have a grill in our prep area and we have a patio outside our cafeteria. So we thought outside the box and we put a hole in the wall from the patio to the kitchen. In the hole, we put in a walk-up window where customers can order grill items from the grill in the kitchen. We also put in a self-serve ordering kiosk. We started the walk-up window in February 2008 and sales have increased 15%. We were able to do something creative using our existing equipment and therefore increase our sales. It's been huge for employee satisfaction."