Eric Sieden

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My hospital is the first hospital on Long Island to provide nutritional information for our patient menu. When I started here I had the vision to provide that information voluntarily before it becomes mandatory. 

Technology and computer skills. I’m working to create an app for us and when I talk to some of my management team [about it] I lose them. 

Be a sponge and take everything in. No matter how much you know you can always take something in. 

When I was a new manager at 22, there were a lot of long-term employees who were three times my age. They would test me and get things by on me. It took quite a while to catch on and to be a step ahead. 

Being promoted to director shortly before my 29th birthday. Also, when I go through my Press Ganey comments and read things like, “food was the highlight of my day.” In healthcare, with patients not wanting to be there and not being in the greatest state, to see something like that is awesome.

I’d like to oversee multiple sites. Also, being that I have a hospitality background I’d like to get into patient relations and service excellence because it ties into hospitality beyond food. 

On Fridays we serve mozzarella sticks in the cafeteria. We sell four for $1.25. After you add up all the costs I was losing money. I was faced with raising the price or taking one away. They are a quarter pound each, so I said, “We’re serving a pound of fried cheese so I’ll take one away and keep the price the same.” There was a huge uproar. The staff filed a petition to HR and administration. I’m happy to say we still serve three. It took a lot of convincing. 

I was a hospitality major and figured I would go into hotels and restaurants. When I took clinical nutrition I got a D+.