Jul. 14, 2025
When you hear the term "room service," you may think of a luxury offering at a fancy resort. While this image wouldn't be incorrect, many healthcare facilities across the United States are altering the public’s perception of room service by offering their patients the ability to order restaurant-style food on-demand.
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Research has shown that facilities with a room service program in place can achieve higher patient satisfaction scores, as well as reduced food waste. In fact, according to a recent study conducted by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, one healthcare facility in Australia was able to increase its patient satisfaction ratings across all Press Ganey categories by implementing a room service program. In addition, this facility was able to reduce overall plate waste drastically. Given the improvements a room service program can provide, it’s hard to believe that only 38% of healthcare facilities currently have a room service program in place today.
So how can you get ahead of the curve and gain a competitive advantage with the implementation of a room service program? We’ve got you covered. This article will provide you with everything you need to know about room service programs in healthcare, and tips to get you started with a successful room service program of your own.
When your patients enter your facility, they do not stop being human beings. As you know, humans like the ability to make their own decisions regarding food choice. A successful room service program will allow your patients to order restaurant-quality food, and have it delivered in 45 minutes or less. This elevated level of service will provide your patients with a sense of empowerment to eat when they want, and what they want and this, in turn, leads to increased patient satisfaction scores.
When it comes to room service increasing patient satisfaction scores, there’s proof behind the pudding. According to Food Service Equipment & Supplies, the implementation of a successful room service program can lift customer satisfaction scores to the 90th or even 99th percentile, which can transform the entire image of a facility for the better.
As we previously discussed, a room service program allows patients to eat what they want, when they want, (within dietary restrictions). This sense of empowerment usually results in patients eating better and thus improving their overall nutritional intake. A recent study by the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that a room service program can enhance patient dietary intake by 17%. It’s important to remember that healthy patients equal happy patients. If a room service program can help you increase the well-being of your patients, implementing such a program at your facility is a no-brainer.
When patients order what they want, and how much they want, fewer meals are returned uneaten, which results in reduced patient meal costs. According to Sodexo, facilities that implemented successful room service programs saved between $7 and $8 per patient per day. A separate study by the Journal of the Academy of Nutritional and Dietetics found that a room service program can decrease overall patient meal costs by 15%. Given these numbers, the potential savings your facility could experience by implementing a room service program is something upper-management will have a hard time overlooking.
The key to starting a successful room service program is making sure everyone at your organization is on board and accepts and believes in the idea. At the core, a room service program will change the way your facility approaches patient care. Implementing a successful program will require all departments at your facility to work in coordination to bring delicious, safe, and high-quality meals to your patients. You may find it challenging to work around everyone's busy schedules, but the time and effort will pay off in the end. You should aim at having one meeting per week with key stakeholders to get the project off the ground and if you find yourself in need of some additional expertise, one of our four teams may be able to hammer out some of the gritty details that sway management’s opinion.
Creating delicious and nutritious food is critical to the success of your room service program. That’s why it’s essential to have the right people in place to run your kitchen. If you do not have classically trained chefs working at your facility, you will want to hire an executive chef to help build your program. This individual must have exceptional knowledge and passion for food, as well as experience in production management, customer service, and leadership. In addition to hiring an executive chef, you will need to implement a culinary recruitment program to help you find trained and experienced cooks with backgrounds in the restaurant and hospitality industries. You cannot afford to settle for cooks without experience. The success of your room service program will depend on you hiring the right talent from the start.
Before attempting to implement a room service program on your own, consider enlisting our services to help you make the switch less painful. Our consultation teams can bring forth a wealth of knowledge and experience and can help you stay on track to complete milestones like equipment recommendations and POD system layout drawings of your kitchen. They can even assist with developing menus, recipes, policies, and procedures, and also assist with the implementation of training programs. An experienced culinary or custom design team can save your facility a significant amount of time and stress during your foodservice transformation and increase the likelihood that your program is a success.
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Keeping food stored at safe temperatures is a top concern for every healthcare foodservice provider. If you need to keep milk or other cold beverages at the correct temperature during meal delivery, look no further than Coldmaster®. These insulated food pans can hold food at or below the food safe temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 8 hours. When drinks are no longer safe, the containers will change color from blue to white. Coldmaster® CoolCheck's color changing technology can give you peace of mind knowing that patients will always receive ice cold drinks. Take the stress out of meal delivery and prepare by ordering your Coldmaster® CoolCheck food pans today!
Implementing a successful room service program at your facility will not be an easy undertaking. It will take considerable planning, time, and resources. While starting a room service program can be challenging, there are things you can do to make your transformation easier. It’s important to keep in mind that a food service program may result in higher up-front costs, but the potential long-term savings associated with the implementation of such a program cannot be ignored. If you are ready to implement a room service program at your facility, check out all the foodservice equipment options we have to offer that can help you take your program to the next level.
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When a loved one is rushed to the hospital, things can move very quickly, and it can be difficult to process everything that’s going on, to stay calm and make a plan. When my mother, who suffers from dementia and advanced Parkinson’s disease, was taken to a hospital this summer, it simply didn’t occur to me to bring some of her basic necessities such as medications, which took more than a day for the hospital to provide.
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As family caregivers know, our loved ones have very specific needs that we’ve learned to support and attend to over many months and years. Even the best-trained nurse or doctor will not be able to immediately identify someone’s needs as soon as they’re admitted, and even if they could, they likely wouldn’t have the capacity to attend to all of these needs.
Elizabeth Bailey, a patient advocate and the author of The Patient’s Checklist, says overworked health care providers and understaffed facilities present a series of obstacles to good care. Bailey says that during a hospital stay, whether brief or extended, you need to be your loved one’s best advocate to better manage, monitor and participate in their care. She adds that this advocacy starts at home.
Because a crisis can happen at any moment, Bailey suggests preparing and having an emergency go bag at the ready because “not having these things can usher in a series of crises for the hospitalized person.”
In addition to an emergency go bag, consider the sort of items your loved one relies on day to day. It may not be necessary (or possible) to bring them on the first day, but if the hospitalization lasts more than a day or two, they could prove very useful. In the case of my mother’s hospitalization, which lasted a week before she was transferred to rehab, I brought her a special water bottle that was easier for her to drink out of. As my mom has never been a TV watcher, I brought her books and magazines to read and ensured they were always within reach. I considered bringing her iPad so she could listen to music, but decided it was too expensive to risk it going missing.
Liz Ozminkowski, an emergency room nurse at one of the largest hospitals in Milwaukee, suggests bringing additional clothing — underwear in particular — as hospitals do not provide it, nor do they offer laundry services. She says blankets and pillows may be helpful, as hospital rooms can get very cold, and the temperature cannot be easily regulated. If the patient walks around a lot, Ozminkowski says, consider bringing a robe or sweatpants that can worn under their gown.
Bringing familiar, comforting items (such as a favorite photograph or music) can help prevent hospital delirium, as can shutting the hospital room’s door to block out hall noise, establishing a normal routine and getting sunlight daily.
According to Ozminkowski, a patient’s belongings are usually recorded and sent along with the patient to the room. If a patient coming into an ER seems out of it for any reason — be it dementia or substance abuse — their belongings may be locked up, but typically, they are sent along to the assigned floor nurse who will determine what to do with them.
If valuables (such as jewelry, a wallet or a cellphone) were admitted with the patient, Ozminkowski suggests either retrieving these belongings and taking them home or asking staff to record them and lock them up.
Some items fall into a gray area, including cellphones, which can be very useful but can get lost in the shuffle. Ozminkowski notes that some hospital rooms don’t have phones in them, so a cellphone really is the only lifeline for some patients. However, if your loved one leaves their cellphone on the bedsheets, it could inadvertently get thrown in the wash. Though this is especially a risk for someone with dementia, it could happen to any patient. My brother (who doesn’t suffer from dementia) lost his this way during a previous hospital stay.
Bailey says that if a person requires hearing aids or glasses to communicate with staff, they won’t be able to advocate for themselves without them. She says it is critical to consider what the patient’s baseline needs are to interact with the world. Unfortunately, hospital staffers are so overworked “that they often don’t consider these things, and this is where family caregivers come into play as being crucial to understanding and monitoring the person’s needs,” she says.
Ozminkowski agrees and recommends ensuring nurses and aides know of any expensive, necessary items, including dentures, hearing aids and cellphones, and encouraging your family member to store them somewhere safe. She suggests putting them on an immovable object such as a bedside table instead of a food tray, where items may get tossed out.
“Every hospital has a whiteboard that is often just used to write the nurse and shift change information, but families can actually use the board as a communication tool with hospital staff,” Bailey says. She suggests that family members write their contact information on the board, along with particular needs of the patient.
Ozminkowski notes that even if a patient brings a cellphone, the battery could die, or the may not get good reception in the hospital. If a patient can’t remember the numbers of loved ones and can’t access them on their cellphone, having that information written on the whiteboard assists both the patient and hospital staff trying to reach family members.
Though it may seem obvious that a person admitted with glasses or hearing aids would rely on these devices, when I visited my mom on the second day of her hospitalization, I found her glasses on a side table while she stared off at a wall, unable to make out what was in front of her. I asked her nurse why she wasn’t wearing her glasses, and he said he didn’t realize she needed them. I wish I had thought to make notes on the room’s whiteboard.
In fact, I loved Bailey’s whiteboard suggestion so much that I bought one for my mother’s room in the memory care facility she recently moved into. Sometimes, we simply write important medical care information on the board; other times, we let my 7-year-old niece draw pictures on it for Grandma. It gives me peace of mind knowing that information is easily accessible.
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