// BLOG
The Dining Experience and Your Quality Indicator Survey
November 21, 2011
Last month I discussed “How the Dining Experience Affects Your Quality Indicator Survey” on the Long-Term Living magazine blog. It’s timely to consider this issue because the new federal Quality Indicator Survey (QIS) process is being rolled out across the country by Medicare and Medicaid. Check out the new QIS forms here:
- Dining Observation
- Quality Assessment and Assurance (QA&A)
- Infection Control
- Kitchen/Food Service Observation
Or, visit our Resources page for these and other useful forms.
Polishing service
November 19, 2011
Each Kind Dining class offers a unique learning experience and opportunity for people who serve together to grow together. Such was the case with Villa Crest, a nursing home and retirement center in Manchester, New Hampshire. Embracing person-centered care to the fullest, their staff within a 12 month time-frame turned a typical nursing home dining room into an atypical dining room, an eatery called Choices. They won the coveted 2011 Optima Award presented by Long-Term Living Magazine for innovative, outcomes-oriented staff teamwork in long-term care communities.
Our Kind Dining training inspired staff to polish their service, with on-going training and service improvement.
Maintain dignity in dining
February 3, 2011
Twenty-five years ago, it was common practice to feed residents in nursing homes by injecting them with pureed food by mouth via a giant syringe. Thankfully, as a society we have backed off the institutionalization of our elders.
In the same way we no longer refer to psychiatric hospitals as “lunatic asylums,” or label the people inside them as “insane,” we no longer use archaic and insensitive terms for seniors or the places they live.
Wave after wave of reform, built upon greater understanding and education, has changed the culture of modern senior living communities. So I was taken aback several weeks ago when I was visiting a community and heard the term “feeders” used to describe dining residents by a nursing intern.
I was stunned by the use of that term in 2011. And I couldn’t imagine how a resident would react to being referred to as a “feeder,” as if that person was lining up in a barn to eat hay, like a cow. I think it goes without saying that terms such as “feeder” must be rooted out. That language is an echo to an earlier time, an era that has thankfully faded into the past.
It is important that providers and nurses stay current, remain up-to-date on culture change in nursing homes, and work proactively for progress. Incidentally, a community could be cited for using a term like “feeder” today. It’s a dignity issue and not a small one.
Enthusiastic return on investment
November 2, 2010
I love hearing feedback after I’ve been inside a senior living community to deliver Kind Dining training.
Nothing gives me more enthusiasm for pressing ahead and making a dent in the overall quality of hospitality in this industry. Of course, it needs more than a dent. It needs a big shove!
Recently, I heard from a manager in Newberg, Ore. who had sent two of her employees to my three-day training workshop.
In a follow-up conversation she was delighted to share that her two employees came back motivated and energized. They realized that their problems were not insurmountable and were inspired to tackle them.
Not only that, these two had implemented immediate behavior changes in order to foster team spirit.
They were leading the dining service team in a pre-meal high-five!
How great is that? That sort of enthusiasm and team-building is crucial to building a cheerful workplace, which carries over to a warmer dining experience for residents.
Kind Dining training can truly make a difference, one high-five at a time.
Teachable Moments
October 8, 2010
Teachable moments hold great value to our efforts to move customer service forward.
I checked in with Sarah, the administrator I am working with in New Hampshire. I wanted to know how things were going since my training sessions there.
She sounded alarmed at first.
“I’m afraid we’re backsliding,” she said.
It turns out there had been an incident in the dining room.
A young server took one look at the soup of the day, a cream-based soup, recoiled, and blurted out loud something along the lines of: “Yuck! I wouldn’t eat that!”
Of course, when residents hear words like these it instantly lowers their confidence in the food that they are about to be served. And we cover that in Kind Dining training.
Fortunately, Dave, their administrator in training happened to be close by, heard the unchecked outburst, and swiftly moved to rectify it.
The problem was minor. The cream in the soup had gotten a little too hot and begun to separate. Simply stirring the soup and garnishing it effectively solved the server’s problem with its appearance.
Sarah was upset that the Kind Dining lesson had not sunk in with the server.
I told Sarah I wasn’t surprised. Teenagers are unlikely to get it the first time. They need to be reinforced constantly.
For me, the story illustrates the importance of having an experienced problem-solver onsite at every meal. If the administrator hadn’t been nearby, this situation could have been a lot more damaging.
Secondly, it tells me that coaching Kind Dining behavior doesn’t end when the training sessions are complete and the workbook is finished. There must be consistent follow-up coaching to make sure that the lessons sink in.
Kind Dining training is so much more than the memorization of items at a proper place setting. It goes much deeper, to changing attitudes, perspectives and habits in order to become a customer service professional.
And unfortunately, there will be times when the process takes one step back before moving two steps forward. These changes aren’t easy!
Module 1 Example Book
Here is an example of the Kind Dining Training Book.Kind Dining® Connection
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