What is one of the best things about staying in a fancy hotel and ordering Room Service?  The answer is easy.  You get what you want, when you want it.  Recently, our dietary staff asked the question:  Why shouldn't our patients have that same luxury?

In April of this year, the MGRMC Dietary department rolled out what is becoming known throughout the health care industry as the Room Service Concept.  And it is exactly that.  Every patient in our hospital is presented with a menu upon admittance.  This menu can vary based on dietary restrictions placed on the patient by their medical provider.  The menu includes a wide variety of entrees and sides that sound much like a standard line up at a fine establishment.  Recently, one patient commented that this idea was the best thing to happen to this hospital in years.  His reasoning?  He was able to order a steak.

At MGRMC, our reasoning for rolling this out was multi-layered.  First and foremost, it was something that was becoming more and more common in the industry.  Not only that, but hospitals that were employing it were finding their customer service scores were improving by 18-30% across the board.  It was very clear that if MGRMC was serious about  making customer service one of its key focuses in 2010, this needed to be part of the overall experience for our patients.

While improvement in customer service may have been the key motivation, the hospital is seeing several other improvements.  These include:

• Waste Reduction - Patients are not wasting food nearly as much as before because they are receiving the food they actually want.
• Nurse productivity - The dietary staff now delivers all meals directly to the patient which frees up our nursing staff, who in the past would have to take on some of that responsibility during designated meal times.
• Improved Nutritional Intake - Patients nutritional intake has improved by 18-22% since this concept was originally rolled out.  Part of this can also be attributed to the fact that a patient will not miss a meal due to being absent for testing.  The meals come when they are ordered.

Comments that have come back from patients are highly positive and focus on two areas.  One, the selection.  Our dietary staff set out to offer a menu that would meet most individual's tastes.  And based on the reactions, they have largely been successful.  Another positive emerging is that caregivers are feeling empowered as they can order for their loved ones if they are absent or not feeling up to it.

At MGRMC, we are excited by the initial results.  Our customers service scores have risen dramatically in just the short time that we have had Room Service Concept.  And there is no doubt as to one of the reasons why.