“Waiters” at SSM St. Mary’s allow patients to order food restaurant-style

You may see “waiters” taking food orders on the fifth floor of SSM St. Mary’s Health Center, but don’t worry: tipping is not required. The “waiters” are SSM St. Mary’s employees who take patients’ food orders a few hours before mealtimes. Employees who participate in the spoken-menu program act more like waitstaff than delivery people. They take patients’ orders just before mealtimes, meet any special requests and check with patients to make sure they enjoyed their meals.

Under the hospital’s traditional menu program, patients fill out an entire day’s menu the previous night. If patients feel sick when they fill out menus, they might not choose food they will enjoy the next day, when they may feel better.

“It’s hard to predict what you’ll want to eat when you feel well,” says LuAnn Swehla, director of Clinical Nutrition. The spoken-menu program lets patients place their orders just a few hours before they eat. Menu clerks take the orders in person and offer to meet patients’ special preferences. Most of the time, patients simply have a conversation with the clerks and don’t even see the menu.

The menu clerks participating in the program take responsibility for everything that happens with their patients’ food. They assemble special-order salads, prepare snacks for patients and attempt to resolve any problems or complaints patients have about their food.

“We work very hard to satisfy the patients,” says Gloria Thomas, dietary supervisor for the program.

The menu clerks also serve the fifth-floor nurses by restocking the floor’s patientnourishment items every day. Before, nurses had to requisition these items when they ran low.

Swehla says that Clinical Nutrition hopes to someday implement a spoken-menu system for the entire health center.