Continuous Quality Improvement of Patient Tray Costs

Theresa Price 12/2/13

Background
Foodservice managers and directors are constantly attempting to evaluate cost effectiveness (Burns & Gregory, 2007).
Determining meal costs is an important factor within a foodservice operation (Raab, Hertzman, Mayer, & Bell, 2006).

Background (cont.)
The main concern for hospital foodservice facilities is to keep a balance between patient meal satisfaction and cost (Burns & Gregory, 2007). More satisfied customers lead to more opportunities to reduce costs among foodservice facilities (Boyce, 2011).

It is important to evaluate menu costs regularly to remain competitive and continue to increase profitability.

Problem
Continue to improve savings among patient tray expenses Decrease patient tray raw food costs

Purpose/Objectives
Purpose: determine if searching for lower priced food items and replacing already packaged containers with bulk items that needed to be portioned into disposable containers would reduce food costs

Objectives:
Determining the most current patient tray cost Identifying items that could be replaced with lower costs similar items Determining if portioning bulk items into disposable containers was more cost effective than current contained food and beverage items

Flowchart

Flowchart (cont.)
It is recommended to cost out the remaining week days and find items that can significantly reduce costs Perform this flowchart process yearly when reevaluating the dining room costs

Methodology
Data collection began in September 2013 and ended October 2013. Used regular patient tray menu for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner for Monday and Tuesday The data collected was complete raw costs and complete proposed costs with suggested changes

Data Collection Tool

Empty Tool Current Breakfast

Fishbone Diagram

Data Collection
Step 1: Collected raw costs from recent purchase order/invoice Step 2: Find less expensive same/similar items on U.S. Foods online catalog Step 3: Find and compare bulk prices and disposable container prices to individually packaged items Step 4: Add proposed prices and compare differences

Study Results
Inclusion criteria: All foods provided on standard regular room service patient menu
(Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner for Monday and Tuesday)

Exclusion criteria: Foods provided on other days of the week

Study Results (cont.)

No statistical analysis needed for this study.
All savings were calculated to determine:
Per meal savings
Savings per day Three month savings Savings per year

Study Results (cont.)

Hypothesis: Food costs will be reduced by finding less expensive items and replacing individually packaged items with bulk items. Hypothesis was correct, the potential savings were significant.

Study Results (cont.)

Current Breakfast for Monday and Tuesday Proposed Breakfast for Monday and Tuesday

Study Results (cont.)

Totals for Current Menu Totals for Proposed Menu

Study Results (cont.)

Recommendations
Proposed changes for breakfast include:
Purchasing fruit to cut up and put in disposable containers Purchasing bulk grape and apple juice to pour into disposable containers Replacing frozen biscuits with biscuit mix and have the bakery bake the biscuits** Found less expensive pancake mix and patty sausage Removal of tray liner*

Recommendations (cont.)
Proposed menu changes for lunch include:
Found less expensive price for English peas, brownie mix, mashed potatoes, and hamburger steak Premade dinner rolls were found to be $0.05 cheaper than bakery made rolls** Purchasing orange sherbet in bulk and portioning it out into disposable cups Removal of tray liner*

Recommendations (cont.)
Proposed menu changes for dinner include:
Found less expensive chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, honey mustard, and peach cobbler Premade dinner rolls** Removal of tray liner*

Recommendations (cont.)
Replace frozen biscuits with fresh baked biscuits and replace homemade rolls with premade rolls Assess patient satisfaction of the homemade dinner rolls before replacing with premade dinner rolls Remove patient tray liners to save $0.05 per tray

Purchase juices, sherbet, and fruit in bulk and portion into disposable containers

Conclusion
SCRMC efficiently works to keep costs down Costs were reduced significantly and could potentially save $4,803.60 yearly by Monday and Tuesdays proposed changes alone. This CQI should be implemented yearly

References
Annaraud, K. (2007). Restaurant menu analysis: Can we go further? Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 10, 25-37. doi: 10.1300/J369v10n04-03 Boyce, B. (2011). Satisfying customers and lowering costs in foodservice: Can both be accomplished simultaneously? The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 111, 1458-1466. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2011.08.026 Burns, J. & Gregory, S. (2007). Changing foodservice systems: A balancing act between patient satisfaction and cost. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 10, 63-78. doi: 10.1300J369v10n05_05 Kivela, J. (2003). Results of a qualitative approach to menu planning using control and experimental groups. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 6 , 43-65. doi: 10.1300/J369v06n04_03

Raab, C., Hertzman, J., Mayer, K., & Bell, D. (2006). Activity-based costing menu engineering: A new and more accurate way to maximize profits from your restaurant menu. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 9, 77-96. doi: 10.1300/J369v09n01-06

Questions?