Food is very important to all of us. We must eat to survive, but food and
meals are much more than that, they help to connect with family and friends,
make and keep memories, and enjoy life. It’s no different for the
residents of
The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center in Gillette, Wyoming. In fact, meals are the most important part of the
day for many of these folks. So when it was taking too long to serve meals
to the residents, when mistakes were made in serving the right food to
the right resident, something needed to change.
The Legacy and Campbell County Health were chosen by
Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC) for a Lean project that began last November. TSSC is a separate
nonprofit part of Toyota, the vehicle company. Lean is a way of looking
at a process, in this case, the process of preparing and serving meals
at The Legacy, in order to reduce waste. In the Lean world, waste can
be time, materials, or anything that doesn’t add value to the process.
It was taking too long to serve the 500-plus meals a day needed at The
Legacy, an average of 72 minutes for the test neighborhood, Birch. It
took up to five nurses to assist in the meal service too, taking time
away from caring for other residents. The project goal was to reduce the
time it took to serve meals, thereby improving both the quality of the
food and the satisfaction of the residents.
Many hours of live time measurement, observation and analysis of how food
was prepared and served resulted in changes with how every part of the
food preparation and service process worked. A few of the many changes
were: to standardize the community kitchens in each neighborhood; holding
a 5-minute “huddle” before every meal service so everyone
is on the same page; standardizing and restructuring resident meal cards
(like menus) so they are easier to read; and changing the food scheduling
process for staff.
Though the changes may seem relatively small, the project has resulted
in some significant reductions in the time it takes to serve meals in
the Birch neighborhood. “We have been able to serve our residents
an average of 20 minutes faster for dinner,” says Nutrition Services Manager
Lisa Miller. “And the perception of the food quality has gone from 15.6 percent
to 81 percent.”
Not only is this great for the residents, but we’ve recognized that
we can use Lean to develop better ways to do things.”
“The residents’ perception of the quality of food has improved
from a rating of 23% Always to 71% Always,” said
Mary Barks, Resident and Family Relations Coordinator. “The residents, families
and staff have told us the system we have developed is more organized,
food is hot, and residents are happier with the quality of the food.”
In order to sustain all the changes they’ve made, staff have created
a manual of the steps they used to measure, monitor and implement their
improvements. Coaching helps ensure the process continues and it’s
also used to train new employees.