QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
New Dining Opportunities Call for Changed Approach to Risk
By Sara Wildberger T
oday, a senior living resident might have coffee and a bagel at an out- door café, use a touchscreen to or-
der lunch at a deli counter, and have dinner in a bistro-style open-kitchen restaurant, without leaving the community. But each type of dining carries different
risks. Everything from the way people or- der, to food prep, to serving and delivery is undergoing a shift—and that shift calls for new approaches to food safety and dining operations.
Fighting foodborne illnesses The Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention put the number of U.S. deaths from foodborne illnesses at 3,000 a year—and older adults are more at risk for contracting such illnesses and for suffering worse effects. Fighting this are systems that “take food
safety to the next level,” says William We- ichelt, director of food safety and industry relations at the National Restaurant Associ- ation (NRA). Dining has been moving from an approach that is reactive to incidents to one that is proactive and preventive. Where once the food safety process started with an incident and traced back to see what went wrong, new systems establish a continuous improvement cycle to prevent problems. As for how the proactive approach works in the day-to-day, Weichelt cites Active Man- agerial Control practices, using a spaghetti sauce as an example: It must be cooked to a certain degree, then cooled twice, each time to a specific degree in specific amounts of time, then stored under refrigeration. The food safety system would dictate the cooling times and degree check—and if the sauce didn’t cool to the right degree in time, it would provide a corrective action for the employee to take.
28 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MAY/JUNE 2019
If the problem happens often, the man- ager makes the corrective action part of the system moving ahead. Management can check the data to refine processes as needed.
Up and down the supply chain Such a system provides a lot more know- how to employees, but it asks more of them, too. The biggest impact for senior living is in documentation and training. The check- ins can seem as numerous as those readying a plane for takeoff, but digital systems and cloud providers can smooth the way. Those working in dining would still
need to have food safety training, such as ServSafe, the NRA’s recognized certification for food professionals. Argentum has recent- ly begun a partnership whereby members can get a discount on course materials for the ServSafe exam, which covers food safety, allergens, and alcohol. Not only changing venues but changing tastes need new attention as well—and these
extend beyond the kitchen. “From the point of view of the supplier, our world is getting smaller,” Weichelt says. “We can get ingredients from all over
the world—and people want to have those options. You need to ensure your supply chain is working well and your suppliers are reputable, and take special considerations for different types of shelf life.”
The changing dining room Open kitchens, “marketplace” dining with several kiosks, and pub dining are other trends that increase resident choice and satisfaction, but also carry some risks. For instance, touchscreens, becoming ubiqui- tous, require special cleaning. “The back of the room has moved to the
front, and chefs are on display,” says Shawn Yingling, president at Glatfelter Healthcare Practice, which provides insurance and risk management for senior living and related organizations.
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