Food-Service-Manual-for-Health-Care-Institutions

Food Service Manual for Health Care Institutions
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TQM was designed to look at problems and improvements that could be made across
departmental boundaries. An example would be an interdisciplinary approach to the education
of a patient. TQM puts the focus on the problem or product to be improved. The process is
interdepartmental, and administration usually assigns it to a committee composed of representatives
of departments affected by the problem. The committee should focus on a workable
positive outcome for all departments. The committee may be a self-managed group assigned to
work on a specific problem or process, and when the task is completed, it is disbanded. Ideally,
administration assigns a leader who is disinterested, has no vested interest in the outcome, is
able to be objective, and is a good negotiator. A group works best when it can reach an agreeable
solution; the solution is implemented, evaluated, and monitored; and necessary adjustments
are made.
When a TQM team follows a “standard guide,” consistency and group acceptance seem
to improve. A guide may suggest the following:
• Choose the product or process that needs to be improved. This may be a management
decision or a regulatory problem. For a food service department, this may include
Late tray service
Height or weight of patients
Use of floor stock
Weekend coverage
• Organize the team and appoint a facilitator and a recorder. Depending on the product
or process to be improved, members could include but not be limited to
Personnel from the area of problem
Member of management
Members of departments that are affected by the process or problem
• Use benchmarking data to determine the best performance. Use other data that will provide
needed information.
• Perform an analysis to determine how performance standards can be met, improved, or
beat. For example, XYZ hospital can serve nine trays per minute; your facility serves only
seven. What makes the difference: equipment, menu, personnel, materials available, work
methods, or physical conditions? Who serves patients’ trays, food service or cross-functional
trained personnel?
• Devise and perform a pilot study and analyze data: Can time be improved, what is the
cost of improvement, should schedules change or should personnel (or both)?
• Implement and monitor improvements. Will improvements enhance patient services and
meet the needs, wants, and perceptions of patients?
Total Quality Management
TQM provides the techniques, concepts, and tools to analyze data for application in CQI. The
tools of TQM help identify and analyze current processes either within or across departmental
lines. Once data are collected and analyzed, steps can be taken to improve a complex process.
Unnecessary or non-value-added steps can be eliminated and the process streamlined to provide
better care or service.
TQM Tools
Statistics-based process control is the foundation of TQM. Tools of TQM, such as flowcharts,
pareto charts, and cause-and-effect diagrams, provide a common statistical language and visual
aids for analyzing a process or problem. Not all TQM tools are required to evaluate any one
process or problem, and only those that clearly will facilitate decision making should be