Serving up five-star patient dining from BUPA Cromwell

Challenge /

In taking on the catering contract at Bupa Cromwell Hospital, Medirest Signature faced a number of challenges. Chief among these was the need to improve patient satisfaction levels with regard to both menus and meal quality at the hospital. Patients who choose Bupa Cromwell Hospital expect the very best in all aspects of service — so it’s vital that the standard of foodservice consistently meets these five-star expectations. With customer satisfaction scores as low as 50 per cent, Medirest Signature needed to address this area immediately. It was also important to cater to the wide range of tastes and culinary preferences of Bupa Cromwell’s diverse patients. Solution Medirest Signature knew that achieving success would involve taking a completely fresh look at how patient dining and foodservice were delivered at Bupa Cromwell. To do this, it drew on its experience as a specialist healthcare provider, with a pedigree in fine dining and a proven track record working with some of the most prestigious healthcare organisations around the world. Medirest Signature put this experience into practice and immediately began addressing the customer satisfaction scores at Bupa Cromwell through a range of initiatives, all focused on ensuring that patients receive the high standard of service they expect. These included the introduction of: The hospital treats patients from a number of different cultures and nationalities, all of whom expect the same standard of tailored dining, so it was important that Medirest Signature’s daily menus reflected this diversity. Another challenge was to make sure that the food service met the varied health and nutritional needs of each and every patient. Not only are patient expectations changing in this regard, with patients expecting food and drink to match their clinical requirements, it’s also a key area of concern for consultants. It was therefore important that Medirest Signature developed a way to work with the clinical team to ensure patient dining complimented the medications and treatments each patient was receiving.

Solution /

Medirest Signature knew that achieving success would involve taking a completely fresh look at how patient dining and foodservice were delivered at Bupa Cromwell. To do this, it drew on its experience as a specialist healthcare provider, with a pedigree in fine dining and a proven track record working with some of the most prestigious healthcare organisations around the world. Medirest Signature put this experience into practice and immediately began addressing the customer satisfaction scores at Bupa Cromwell through a range of initiatives, all focused on ensuring that patients receive the high standard of service they expect. These included the introduction of:

1. New technology to make mealtimes more tailored and streamlined.

2. Medirest Signature’s ‘Esteem’ system, allowing meals to be cooked on the ward.

3. A considerably more extensive menu, catering to a wider range of tastes.

4. Special diet menus which better support clinical requirements.

5. A management style that put Medirest Signature’s motto, ‘Performance with Heart’, at the centre of everything the team does. 

 

A personal service with a technological touch

To begin, the Medirest Signature team overhauled the traditional system patients used to order their meals. Where previously patients were given a piece of paper to tick off the meals they wanted for the next day, now, technology allows a far more personal approach.

Today, a leather-bound menu in each room outlines everything on offer, giving patients as much time as they need to choose what they want to eat that day. Staff then visit every patient’s bedside twice-daily, often within an hour of mealtimes, to take their order via a wireless electronic tablet.

Along with talking to each patient about the menus and à la carte options, team members also bring information about the specials of the day and can discuss the patient’s specific preferences for each dish. The wireless tablet means that as many patient preferences can be logged as necessary, and that these are all seamlessly communicated to the kitchen.

Medirest Signature has also introduced the ‘TOPdesk’ online, real-time hospitality ordering system — a hospitality coordinator app, which makes ordering easy. It also contains a customer satisfaction section so foodservice can quickly adapt to patient feedback.

Food, freshly cooked on the ward

Although the kitchens remain the hub of patient dining at Bupa Cromwell, Medirest Signature added an innovative approach that means meals can be steam-cooked on demand, on the ward.

This proprietary technology, called Esteem, is a fine-dining catering system that steam cooks fresh ingredients in minutes. With a patented steam-release valve to regulate the temperature throughout the cooking process, it means that food is kept in the optimum condition throughout heating.

Esteem makes sure that food retains its colour, texture, taste and the valuable nutrients that can be lost with other methods of cooking. By allowing food to be cooked close to the point of order, with ingredients plated in a classic restaurant style before being served to patients, the system also means food is always served warm and in a timely manner.

By giving Bupa Cromwell’s patients freshly prepared meals within a short walk of their room, Esteem also addresses some of the feedback the hospital was previously receiving about the inconsistent quality and temperature of food.

Fine dining to tempt all appetites

Esteem is just part of the picture when it comes to boosting patient satisfaction, though. From day one, Medirest Signature began expanding the range of meal and snack options available to patients, staff and visitors at Bupa Cromwell.

First, it put in place a range of delicious menus, designed to meet specific dietary and clinical requirements. These special diet menus include texture modified, low sodium and allergen menus. These tailored options ensure that, regardless of a patient’s medication or condition, there’s a meal available to them that meets their nutritional requirements and helps facilitate recovery.

These menus were developed by Medirest Signature’s team of dietitians, who started with the principle of ‘eat and enjoy’, and then worked with the chefs to maintain the flavour of the dishes in a way that supports nutritional needs. This incorporates international cuisines, a dedicated paediatric menu, favourite comfort foods, and even a full afternoon tea service, complete with cake stands and all the trimmings.

The team also worked hard to address the broad cultural demographic within Bupa Cromwell, particularly the significant number of Middle Eastern patients, who typically account for around 40 per cent of the hospital’s patients. For this demographic, a sizeable speciality menu was created, carefully reflecting the food of the region, with new options that include falafel, shirazi salad, and a selection of meze that changes daily. For long-stay patients too, the Medirest Signature team works hard to offer plenty of variety, regularly including choices from the Wellspring Restaurant (used by staff and visitors). This expands the patient dining repertoire still further, by an average of five extra hot dishes a day.

You name it, Medirest Signature creates it

Bupa Cromwell chose to work with Medirest Signature because it’s committed to providing a five-star, private hospital food menu — tempting patients with the food they want, as long as it’s not against doctor’s orders.

This means that Medirest Signature chefs will cook any meal a patient requests, as long as they have the ingredients to hand in the kitchen. Doing this, the chefs are able to craft bespoke and delicious meals that meet the specific needs of patients. What’s more, for occupants of Bupa Cromwell’s four premium suites, the chefs will cook anything that’s requested — even if it means a swift trip out to source the specific ingredients.

Medirest Signature has recently extended this ‘can do’ approach with an overnight on-call service that provides on-demand hot food and sandwiches for all patients, whatever the hour.

A transformation of approach

In order to replicate the high standards of Bupa Cromwell, Medirest Signature knew it would need to align every aspect of its contract delivery with those standards. As a starting point, the Contract Manager and her team adopted a management style that sought to build an empathetic relationship with both Bupa Cromwell and everyone who walked through its doors.

Rather than staying at their desks, the Medirest Signature team members made the hospital floor their main working environment. The Contract Manager herself makes it a daily priority to be out on the wards during meal service, as well as speaking to patients throughout the day. And it’s not uncommon to see catering staff regularly asking patients if there’s anything further they can do to make them more comfortable, from fetching their slippers to providing beverages throughout the day.

This commitment to patient care means that attention to detail is put into every aspect of the service that Medirest Signature provides. Now, rather than simply serving each patient their meal, when the team brings each dish to a patient’s bedside, they also double check that the patient is ready to eat and whether their preferences have changed.

It’s all part of providing a tailored, empathetic service that’s driven by customer satisfaction.

Patient-centred training for all service staff

The Medirest Signature management team encouraged all its staff to embrace a proactive, problem-solving approach to patient care — and introduced new systems to gather feedback, and act on it.

A daily ‘huddle’, involving the whole Medirest Signature team, was introduced to identify feedback — both positive and negative — and agree action plans to deal with it. Plus, real-time feedback can now be captured via the patient ordering system.

What’s more, if a team member witnesses or encounters a difficulty, they take responsibility for doing everything they can to resolve the issue on the spot.

Supporting patients’ support teams

Along with its dedication to taking care of patient dining at Bupa Cromwell, Medirest Signature has also extended its focus to ensuring that staff and visitors have plenty of appetising meal options.

It is investing over £250,000 in staff and visitor dining, including a brand-new high-quality barista-style coffee outlet — Caffé Dallucci — giving both staff and visitors a place to unwind and catch-up. The newly refurbished Wellspring Restaurant also supports staff health and wellbeing, providing extensive menus and a fantastic place to relax and unwind during busy days at work.