PROPOSAL TO CHANGE SOME ITEMS IN TCC PLCMT HOSPITAL MENU 1

PROPOSAL TO CHANGE SOME ITEMS IN TCC PLCMT HOSPITAL MENU

MEDINA OCHOA PAULA LUCERO

CALIFORNIA STATE LONG BEACH

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Abstract

The objective of this proposal is to change some items in the Transitional Care Center from

Providence Little Company of Mary Torrance, in order to bring a better client satisfaction during

their hospitalization and recovery. The Transitional Care Center, is a facility where the patients

who had a surgery or others health issues, that will take a recovery time longer than a week, can

be transferred to this Center. Some patients have expressed their concerns about some menu

items in order to enjoy the food that the hospital provide.

Keywords: PLCM, TCC, Menu, Providence Little Company Of Mary, Transitional

Care Center.
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Proposal to Change Some Items in PLCMT TCC Hospital

Providence Little Co Of Mary Transitional Care is a medicare and medicaid certified

nursing home in Torrance, California. It is located in Los Angeles county at 4320 Maricopa

Street, Torrance, California 90503. This skilled nursing facility has 115 federally certified beds

with average occupancy rate of 59.13%. Its legal business name is Providence Health System -

Southern California and has the following ownership type - Non Profit - Church

Related. (Medicarelist, 2016)

I work as a diet assistant and food service worker in this place, and during my one year of

experience working in this place, I have notice that many changes can be done at the menus that

we offer to the patients.

The purpose is to make some changes in the menu in order to have more patient’s

satisfaction during their stay. Some menus changes includes:

 Add and rotate fruits at breakfast.

 Add different breakfast options daily

 Add and rotate vegetables and starches at lunch and dinner.

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Method

Participants
In order to change the menu options it is very important to organize a meeting with the

Dietary staff who make the menus (Chef Manager, Registered Dietitian Manager, Dietitians).

present a list of fruits, vegetables and starches to change the menu options is the next step to

plan the new menu. It is very important to add this changes in the hospital menu because “More

than ever, patients are making the connection between chronic conditions and diet,” says Susan

Levin, a registered dietitian with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.Some

research shows that hospitalized patients crave healthier food, Levin adds. “They crave fresh

fruits and veggies, not greasy food. I don’t think hospitals are so different than food

environments outside of hospitals .You see a trend where the public is demanding healthier

food.” I have seen this phenomenon , when the patient is in the hospital with a chronic disease,

they ask for healthy food, that is the reason why I have been notice that the hospital do not have

many options also, because I have listen the patients opinions about the food. The three more

commons complains are about the poor breakfast option and repetitive items, the second

complain is the poor vegetable and starch varierity.

Assessments and Measures

The menu options will be evaluated by the professional staff, it may include a tasting

day of those menus to be able to know what the patient will receive when he or she make their

own food selection. Usually there is an external organization that make the evaluation about the
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patient food satisfaction. The patient receives a paper with his daily menu, and in the back of that

paper, they can evaluate the food, service, food temperature, and dietary staff. In order to know

how the new items changes are doing, the survey will be analyze one month before to make the

changes, and will be evaluated one month after the change during the next 6 months in order to

improve the service.

Results

I started to work at the Transition Care Center since January, I have been taking the time

to see and analyze the areas that we can improve in order to bring a better service to the patient. I

shared my ideas about the menu changed to the chef manager, dietitian manager and operational

manager. The answer that I received was that they just changed the menu 6 months ago. Also, in

order to make a change they need to have a meeting with a group of processionals that make

those changes. By the moment I am looking for a new strategy to find the way to make those

changes. One of the issue that I have found to do not get tho this point, is the lo

Conclusion

When the patient is in the hospital and receive certain food, he or she believes that is

healthy food because it is served in the hospital, a place that helps to heal their body.(How

healthy is a hospital food, 2016). There are many things that helps to create a good food hospital

service, the right ingredients and proper preparation, speed-scratch cooking offers an ideal way

to integrate value-added ingredients with fresh foodstuffs to create unique, flavorful menu

options. The main key is to find away to innovate the organization, challenge the employers to
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improve the quality of work life and develop a corporate or organizational culture (Sherman ,

Snell & Bohlander,1997). One of the biggest challenge is to sensitize the management to make

some changes in the menu. When the people change, everything has potential to change (Gamble,

2001).
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References

Food in hospitals- Retrieved 13 November 2016, from http://health.usnews.com

com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2014/06/02/how-healthy-is-hospital-food

Gamble, J. (2001).What Your Clients Won’t Tell You and Your Manager Don’t Know. Roswell,

GA. Tenacity Inc.

Gregoire, B, M. (2013). Food Service Organizations A Managerial and Systems Approach.

Saddle River, NJ. Pearson.

Providence Little Co Of Mary Transitional Care Ctr in Torrance, CA - Medicare and Medicaid

Certified Nursing Home. (2016). Medicarelist.com. Retrieved 13 November 2016, from

http://www.medicarelist.com/nursing-home/providence-little-co-of-mary-transitional-car

e-ctr-torrance-ca/

That’s Progress — Advancements in Hospital Foodservice. (2016). Todaysdietitian.com.

Retrieved 13 November 2016, from

http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/072709p28.shtml