2-Week Administrative Staff Relief

For my two week administrative staff relief I chose to be with Emily, the manager of patient meal services. I was very fortunate to be a part of the implementation of the hospitality food service program at Presby Dallas. What is it? The host/hostess takes patient meal orders 1-2 hours before meal time using a touch screen notebook right at the patient's bedside. The host/hostess reads the patient his meal choices and enters them into CBORD. The host then goes back to the kitchen to assemble the trays and then delivers the trays to the same patients at designated meal times. This style food service essentially improves tray accuracy and patient satisfaction. Accountability is another important factor because the host that takes meal orders and prepares each tray is the host that serves it to the patient. No passing the blame! The hosts and hostesses also got new uniforms that look very sharp.

We started slow with the implementation process by doing one building at a time. I helped with computer training of employees and went with them during their first few days of taking patient's meal orders. This was a bit of a challenge for me because some of the employees don't have much computer skills and on top of that they don't speak very good English. During the implementation process it becomes clear that the way the plan looked on paper is not how it is played out. Throughout the two weeks I offered many suggestions and opinions about other ways to go about things. I also got to participate in employee job interviews by asking the applicant questions and taking part in the decision making process. Being a manager also means that you have to deal with upset/needy patients and employees needing corrective action. It was interesting to observe how these situations were resolved. These two weeks were an awesome experience for me. I love the hustle and bustle of being a manager. Even though it can be very, very stressful at times, I like it because there is always something going on that needs your attention. I think this is definitely what I want to do some day!

So, that was a summary of my two weeks. Now lets talk weather. YUCK! In my 23 years of living in Wisconsin I have never seen such a mess! On Tuesday February 1st, after it had poured all night, a nice dusting of snow came along to make things extra slippery. I planned on going in early because I just knew it was going to be bad. That plan failed because it took me about 30 minutes to de-ice my car. It was covered in an inch of ice with the doors froze shut. I had no other choice but to start kicking my doors. It worked. I gave the two Chinese men who were taking a picture or video of me two thumbs up. The roads were terrible. No salt on them, just ice, so slippery. Bad roads also means that a lot of people don't go to work. I would estimate that the kitchen was working at about 40-50% of its normal workforce to feed the same number of patients. On Friday February 4th, with the ice from a few days ago still lingering, a predicted one inch of snow somehow became six! In Wisconsin these six inches would have been cleared off the road during the night to make them safe. Not in Texas! They just let it sit. Wednesday February 9th there was another slippery sleet/snow storm. There was a big accident blocking the driveway to get out of my apartment complex. I had to turn my flashers on to turn around. That's another long story, but my flasher button is now broken.

P.S. Olive Garden lets you try a bunch of wine for free in 2 ounce portions =)