| RD Poll |
Please share your input and feedback in regards to Culture Change in this week's poll. Do you have a picture of what "Culture Change" looks like in your facility? Please click here to submit your pictures and be entered in a contest!  |
| Food For Thought |
Culture Change in the Dining Room can begin with you! How do your facilities measure up? Click here for pictures and ideas.  email or call me at the office 916-364-5300.
Janet Montano, RD Director of Menu Services |
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| Contact the Editor |
 Please send your RDNews comments, suggestions & questions to Judy Morgan, MBA, RD | |
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Greetings! 
The RD News focus this week is on "Culture Change"
written by Sam Ousey, RD, HMC's Vice President who recently received the California Dietetic Association's Award for Excellence in Private Practice, Business or Communication. (read more)
Congratulations Sam!!! |
Culture Change and
Resident Directed Dining | |
By Sam Ousey RD
I had a great visit last week that I just had to share with all of you. A small facility that HMC consults for in the Salinas Valley has started a farm-to-table Breakfast café: Katherine's Breakfast Café! What better place than Salinas?
The DSS and Administrator go to the farmer's market weekly and purchase seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables for the Friday Breakfast Café. Please refer to F371 update from RDNews archive and HMC Policies and Procedures #350 for updated 2009 surveyor guidance on food brought into facility by visitors. The DSS ensures the produce is handled with care, stored correctly and kept fresh in the walk-in. On Friday morning, they set up a buffet station with fruit salad, muffins and cook- to-order eggs like veggie omelets, quick bread blueberry pancakes and hot cereal with topping. The staff takes the resident's orders and then serves them just like a home town café.  The residents LOVE it!!
The program will expand to more than one day per week soon and they are looking at restaurant style dining for lunch and dinner. We all sat down and drew up the initial plan of how to begin restaurant style dining for the facility. We designed an ala carte menu with alternates of sautéed chicken breast, pasta entrée with seasonal sauce, seasonal fruit and cheese plate and good old hamburgers: all Items that can be kept in inventory and easily prepared. We created a soup and salad rotation to increase choices at the meal. We talked about equipment like heated soup tureens and bread baskets and dessert carts with decorated plates. The possibilities were endless. I have not had this much fun in a facility in years!
The Administrator set up a petty cash fund to allow increased purchases at the farmer's markets. Programs like this reduce the time assembling trays and get the food to the resident more quickly since it does not sit in a cart waiting to be served. It allows choice which in the long run, increases meal intakes. Culture change drives us away from the institutional model. It allows the RD to contribute to the dining experience. This is why HMC has chosen to make our mission this year to be... 
Better food = Money Saved! |
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RD Tip | Some Ideas to introduce culture change:
- Add soup and salad to the meal and serve at table side
- Bread basket with assorted breads and crackers
- Beverages poured at table side
- Create an ala carte menu for your alternates instead of PBJ and grilled cheese or cottage cheese plates.
- Create a resident dining council
- Have theme meals monthly with resident choice meals or seasonal celebrations
- Change up the place setting
 with glassware, folded cloth napkins, chargers, placemats, flower, etc. (where appropriate)
- Provide patio or outdoor dining for special occasions, birthdays, holidays, etc.
Go to the CDHCF and click on Winter 2010 to view a very interesting article By Linda Handy, RD, published by Dietetics in Health Care Communities practice group of ADA in Connections, Winter 2010, "The Dietitian's Role in Culture Change and Regulatory Compliance".
Click on images below for valuable Culture Change information and resources that you can share with your facilities:
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| Dear Dietitian; |
Dear Dietitian;
Some of my most gratifying memories as an RD have been when planning and operating theme dinners. When I was the RD at a facility, we had an Italian Night and I can still remember the joy on the resident's faces and how much fun they had. Their family members also enjoyed the meal, but mostly enjoyed the time with their happy loved ones. We did it up with checkered tablecloths, candles, and Frank Sinatra's music to serenade us. I even cooked part of the meal. It created a feeling of good will throughout the facility. That eventually led us to buffet dining, then Silver Key dining with dessert carts, then to catering for birthdays! Let's just say by the time I left the facility, we had plus signs in our budget account.
Please remind your facilities of HMC's many resources that can help them with Culture Change. The HMC website, Menu For Success Monthly Newsletter, Manuals, Holiday and Theme Menus, and printable articles are designed to help them succeed!
I challenge you to champion culture change and resident directed dining!
Sam Ousey, RD Vice President
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Registered Dietitian Newsletter
