January 27, 2010 -- Hospital Impact has been ranked one of the top 50 healthcare blogs by Wikio.
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This hospital in Nebraska just successfuly put in the "At Your Request" Program from Sodexho. From 7AM-7PM, patients can order from a menu with full breakfast items, baked fish, hambugers, grill items, etc. Apparently, this reduces food costs, reduces waste, and gets nurses out of the food service business. Check out Sodexho's PDF Sell Sheet for more benefits.
Sodexho has put this program in place for 233 facilities. Not surprisingly, Aramark, a leader in food service (among other services) in hospitals, offers a similar menu-driven program. Also of note from Aramark was their 3/23/05 press release on hospital dining - they estimate that only 50% of employee dining needs are being met at hospitals. If hospitals could do this better, hospitals could increase revenues by $350MM/year.
UPDATE: Seems like every week, I'm hearing more and more about how hospitals are becoming more like hotels. Like I previously posted, hospital patient registration clerks need to become more like hotel check-in personnel. Andrew Barna's got a post on hospitals being "more than a hotel." Also, HealthLeaders also highlighted some lessons that hospitals should learn from the Ritz-Carlton. One example: all hospital workers, clinical or not, are "on stage" and should "maintain positive eye contact" and "use proper vocabulary."
Safety TipHospital facilities built today do not include asbestos, but many older buildings still have asbestos components in them. Steam pipes, boilers and furnace ducts were often insulated with an asbestos blanket or asbestos paper tape because of their fireproof and insulating properties. Resilient floor tiles were made from vinyl asbestos. Asbestos cement was employed in roofing, shingles and siding materials. The hazard of this carcinogen increases when the fibers become airborne, and untrained contractors can inadvertently increase risks by cutting, tearing, sawing, scraping, or sanding asbestos materials. Elevated asbestos levels can occur in hospitals where old materials are damaged or disturbed. It is best to leave undamaged asbestos material alone if it is not likely to be disturbed. Inhaling asbestos fibers is known to cause mesothelioma and other diseases. Be sure to use an experienced asbestos removal contractor when you need to get rid of old materials that might contain asbestos. |