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Show Valley Medical Center installs new meal delivery system Patients will not have to be awakened quite so early for breakfast which is now being served at 8:00. The old system demanded that breakfast be served at 7:30, so that the carts were returned to the kitchen early enough to begin the first phase of the lunch tray set-up. The new system has eliminated this problem. Barbara Goodale, Director of Food Ser vices says that the transition to the new system has been very smooth and that patients and staff seem to be very pleased with the improvement. Anyone who has been served meals in the past as a patient at Valley View Medical Center knows about cold silverware, crusty mush and an inefficient party of 4-5 employees delivering trays. Such problems have been eliminated with the New Meal Delivery System installed in-stalled June 9, 1980. New lightweight carts have replaced the old fashioned, 500 pound, divided hot and cold food carts. Patient tray assembly which once took place at three different dif-ferent time in three different places is now done just once on an efficient tray line where trays can be checked for appearance as well as diet accuracy. Appropriate serving temperature is maintained main-tained by a headed metal base which holds the dinner plate, which is covered with a stainless steel lid. Cereals and soups are kept hot in a thermos bowl with a lid that does not allow a hard crust to form the way the dry heat of the old system did. Meal delivery which once required housekeeping personnel to push the heavy carts, dietary personnel to reassemble the food onto one tray, and nursing personnel to take the tray into the patient can now . be done with a minimum of 1-2 nursing staff members. V f -w- !- ;: V 1 . is . "f.l, I r. - i I ' ," !';':' ' " "'"Ill " j Y I I I A Valley View Medical Center employee demonstrates the new meal delivery system being used at the facility. The new system will be more convenient for patients, say employees. |