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Food and Nutrition at Blue Ridge HealthCare

Scope of Services:

The Food and Nutrition Department at Blue Ridge HealthCare provides comprehensive nutritional care, including food service, medical nutrition therapy, and outpatient nutrition consultation to all patients, residents, and customers as needed. Nutritious and appealing menus are planned following the guidelines of the American Dietetic Association. Patients and residents that have the ability to choose their meals are given a variety of selections from the “World Class Patient Service” menus. Grace and Valdese Hospital provide extensive catering for scheduled events in house and off site. Grace and Valdese Hospitals also offer full service café’s that are available to all care team members and visitors. Additionally Grace Hospital prepares and delivers meals for community child care and elderly facilities and home delivered distribution sites.

Food Service:

Nutritious and appealing menus are planned for all patients and residents following various therapeutic diets.  Patients and residents, who are able to choose, are given a variety of food items to choose from using the World Class Patient Service Menus. Grace and Valdese Hospitals plan meals for in-house caterings.  In addition, Grace Hospital plans meals for child-care and elderly feeding programs in the community.

Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT):

The clinical dietitians are active members of the Blue Ridge Healthcare team. They are responsible for the clinical nutritional care of all  patients and residents. This includes nutritional assessments, follow-up care, nutrition education and participation in interdisciplinary team meetings.

Outpatient MNT Services are provided to the Cancer Care Center, Blue Ridge Home Health and by appointment through referral.

Dietitians are active members of the following BRHC committees:

• Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee
• Accreditation Readiness Committee
• Performance Improvement Committee
• Wound Care Committee
• Education Committee

Goals:

• To provide comprehensive nutritional care and excellent food service to everyone we serve.
• To monitor and evaluate the appropriateness of nutrition care, food service, and the overall performance we provide.

Skill Level of Personnel:

The Food and Nutrition Department at each facility of Blue Ridge HealthCare is under the direction of the Associate Vice President of Support Services  and is the resident District Manager from ARAMARK.  A Registered, licensed Dietitian or a Certified Dietary Manager manages each food service facility.  Registered licensed clinical dietitians provide the medical nutrition therapy at each facility. All dietitians are Registered with the American Dietetic Association and licensed in the State of North Carolina.

Staffing Plan:

The location manger at each facility adheres to guidelines in developing the staffing plan.  Several factors are used in determining this plan:

• The non-clinical workload is determined by using the number of meals served as the workload indicator.  The labor minutes per meal served are compared to industry standards to determine if staffing is accurate.
• The clinical staffing workload is based on in-patient and resident caseload and any additional activities and services provided by the dietitian.  ARAMARK productivity guidelines are used for benchmarking purposes.
• Benchmarking is also used to determine clinical and non-clinical adequacy of staff with other hospitals through the Solucient Carolinas Healthcare System Collaborative Group.