Dave Reeves is the director of hospitality services at Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare, where he also is the Association of Healthcare Foodservice’s president-elect for the 2017-2018 term. Below, he shares his hopes to modernize the organization and address healthcare foodservice operators’ concerns during his term.
Q: What are the main issues for health care FSDs that aren’t going away?
A: We are in an industry where reimbursement is declining year to year, so we need to learn how to operate with budgets that are the same or lower. One of the things we can do is lower costs—or we can grow our revenue. That’s what we are seeing a lot of people doing: looking at their cafeteria or retail operation as more of a profit center to offset some of that. We need to focus on our retail operations and retail growth.
Q: What do you hope to achieve in your presidency?
A: How we deliver education for the future is something I’d really like to look at, whether it’s more webinars or new resources. My pet project has been engaging new members, first-time members and younger members, because we’ve got to look to the future.
Q: Do you have any initiatives in the planning stages?
A: I want to enhance the way we can support our members for cost reductions or any new initiative—for instance, having an internal consulting group of members that is able to share their experiences.