Karina Almanza, CSUN 2017-2018 Dietetic Intern

R.D., Deborah Lomax, Pacifica Hospital of the Valley

Menu Project
Non-Selective Menus
Pacifica Hospital of the Valley has always practiced the used of 4 different cycles of a
non-selective menu for patients with special needs for regular, renal, soft, soft-bland, diabetic, low-fat,
mechanical soft, sodium restricted and pureed diets. With the intent to create a format for the hospital that
will allow for a more professional and sophisticated food service, the implementation of the non-selective
cycle menus onto perforated paper was further investigated.
Upon being placed on the task of appropriately aligning the menus available onto perforated
paper that was purchased, I came to the quick realization that all menus needed precise measurement and
proper to printing to configure if alignment was sufficient. Reviewing a total of 252 menus for 4 different
cycles, that met the needs of 9 different diets for 7 days of each week, each menu was appropriately
aligned within 3 days of the first week of the Food Service rotation.
After the first week of reviewing each menu, the first patch of perforated paper was used for a test
run, printing only 10 copies of Cycle 2s Regular diet. Within the first day of printing, there were
mistakes noticed by the diet clerks and diet office manager in the matching of menus. To respond to these
mistakes, I gathered the accurate information for each menu from the master booklets of the 4 different
cycles.
The master booklet held several discrepancies that did not match what was documented on the
computer and the USB versions of the menus. In my second week of rotation, I focused on correcting
these mistakes and converted each menu into a PDF format to avoid the possibility of the format changing
when time came to print onto perforated paper.
During the 5th week of rotation, perforated paper was implemented into the cafeteria workplace
and copies were designated for each day of type of menu: 60 Regular, 30 Diabetic, 30 Low Sodium, 30
Mechanical Soft, 20 Pureed, 15 Bland, 15 Low Fat, 15 Renal, 15 Soft and 5 Dysphagia. This led to an
estimated number of 1645 sheets of paper, while the bundles of perforated paper only yielded 500. The
menus that would be most used were prioritized and printed for Menu Cycle 2: Regular, Low Sodium,
Mechanical Soft, Diabetic, and Pureed.
Each day of the week was separated by day and menu type, being marked by post-its and
arranged in a box until new folders arrive to the department. Once Cycle 2 was organized onto perforated
paper, there was anticipation for a new order of folders to place them into. Each folder is marked by day
of the week and their specific category (i.e. Wednesday- Renal). Upon receiving the new folders, each
menu was placed according to their proper placement, corrected if did not align appropriately and the
master copies that were made were distributed to a separate to two different master menus, one was
arranged by diet and the other was arranged by days (i.e. Monday- Regular, Low Sodium, Diabetic or
Regular- Sunday through Saturday, etc.)
Printing of each cycle took a minimum of one whole day, an estimated 8 hours, considering
technical problems with printers, meetings in between each day and organizing of each distribution of
each type of menu. This project continued as an on-going project, making necessary corrections as my
rotation continued and making appropriate modifications, copies and distributions to the Directors
Master Key, the Printing Key, the Diet Offices Menu and the Diet Offices Master Key. This process
continued throughout the whole rotation.
Selective Menu
In an effort to further enhance and improve Pacifica Hospital of the Valleys customer service and
overall, patient satisfaction, I created a proposal to incorporate the selective menu into the facility.
Incorporating the selective menu would increase the available options for patients, making each meal feel
personalized. Aside from improving customer satisfaction, the selective menu would decrease food waste
through the individualization of each meal rather than a forced delivery of the only meal available for the
meal and for that day.
The proposal created incorporated scientific-based evidence, a fiscal plan responding to an
increase in staff and the annual cost of hiring to accommodate for this change in menu platform. Please
see the following documents to view the conclusive proposal.

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