Peru hospital to offer ‘five-star room service menu'
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Peru Tribune
Who says you can only get five star room service at a hotel?
Dukes Memorial Hospital is offering a "five star room service menu" starting today, according to Andrew Lipari, Dukes director of food service.
"The trend has been to do this for a while at other area hospitals," he said. "... (The Dukes menu) gives them a lot of choices. We want to make them feel at home here."
Lipari said offering this type of menu has been in the works since before the hospital was purchased by Triad and the staff has been conducting a pilot service in the obstetrics unit for about eight months. The new menu was so successful there, the staff knew they wanted to offer it to patients all over the hospital including acute care.
Breakfast is served from 7 to 9 a.m., lunch is 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and dinner is 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Patients can order a meal from the menu by calling "CARE" or dialing 2273 and within 45 minutes a meal will be delivered to their room. Guests also can order meals, with breakfast costing $3 and lunch and dinner $4.50.
If patients are not heard from, Lipari said the kitchen staff will call their room to see if they want something.
The menu is quite extensive, offering eggs, omelets, cereal, bread, fruit, turkey sausage or bacon and pastries for breakfast. Soups, salads, grilled or deli entrees such as hamburgers and chicken fingers, side dishes and hot entrees such as pepperoni pizza, chicken vegetable saute, fish and chips and desserts like deluxe chocolate brownies, fresh baked cookies and angel food cake can be ordered at lunchtime.
Dinners can include soup, salad, deli or grilled sandwiches similar to those on the lunch menu, plus chicken breast Parmesan, an open-faced turkey Manhattan, lemon baked cod, grilled salmon, spaghetti and more.
Lipari said the hospital tries to help people on special diets as well with heart-shaped icons next to heart-healthy choices and a green and yellow star for sodium-restricted diet items. In addition, each item lists how many carbs it has and on the back of the menu it lists the number of carbs per meal diabetics should consume.
Patients can take the menu home with them, as it's meant as a teaching tool.
"Many people need to know (carb counting) when they get home," Lipari said.
No additional cooks have been hired to handle the new menu, Lipari said.
The 20 current staff members have been cross trained to do different tasks in the kitchen.
"They're pretty excited about it," Lipari said of the staff. "They can show some of their flair, make an omelet to order, get creative with garnishes ... They take ownership of the program."
If patients would happen to order the wrong item for their particular needs, the kitchen staff can intervene as the food service department gets diet computer printouts for all patients. The front of the menu also advises patients to consult with their nurse before ordering to work around treatment schedules.
Lipari added the staff had visited other hospitals and decided to model the menu after one of the highest-rated medical facilities: Dupont Hospital in Fort Wayne.
ProAssets Web Design & SEO
