Diagnostic Statement

Grandview Medical Center has not been attaining high enough scores for
Temperature of Food on their Press Ganey Patient Satisfaction Surveys The
purpose of this Performance !mprovement"#uality !mprovement Pro$ect was to
determine the reasoning behind the poor temperature scores %ith the results
from patient rounding& ! received a lot of strong feedbac' and information
about food temperatures
! interviewed about () different patients between the brea'fast& lunch&
and early dinner hours to find out their point of view on food temperatures *
out of () patients +,-./0 said there was a hot temperature problem with their
food The main discovery that ! came across was that the lunch and dinner
menu items did not seem to be as hot as the brea'fast menu items
Specifically& patients noted that the hot food items& such as the Pot 1oast and
Stir Fry were not hot enough 2oth of these dishes are held on the steam table&
which could be the result of why they are not warm or fresh enough
Some patients also commented on how the coffee could be a little
warmer The patient service employees wor'ing on the tray line already put an
insulated lid on the coffee cup to 'eep it warm& but the timing of pouring the
coffee and then leaving it on the tray until the food is ready could be part of
the issue Time and temperature correlate with one another and one can
strongly depend on the other ones outcome %aiting to pour the warm drin's
until closer to when the food is ready could help the temperature of the coffee
stay e3tremely warm until it is delivered to the patient 4nowing when the
food is ready can be very hard to 'now since the coo' may be ma'ing several
meals at once Ma'ing sure that you add the hot drin's after adding the
condiments& dessert& and cold drin's to the tray could help decrease the slight
temperature issue with the coffee 5ther than a few comments on the coffee
temperature& the brea'fast food did not seem to have an issue with
temperature
6fter thoroughly testing the temperature of the base& tray accuracy& and
interviewing patients& there were a few other possible contributing factors to
ta'e into account 7very patient that had a cold food item on their tray& such
as $uice& yogurt& or dessert said it was at the right temperature 2ased on the
patients8 responses& there does not seem to be an issue with cold
temperatures& $ust the hot temperature food items
6fter careful consideration& the temperature issue did not come from
the base or heating system& it seemed to rest in the temperature of the plates
and some of the food items themselves !t was determined that the plate
warming container was not being consistently filled with plates before
lunchtime The brea'fast food is warm enough because the plates served with
brea'fast have been warmed over night& but the lunch complaints could be due
to the inconsistency of filling the plate warmer machine after the morning
delivery of trays This in return was causing the temperature of the lunch menu
items to not be as hot as the brea'fast menu items