SRMC

Things at SRMC are still going well and I'm starting to learn the ropes. Yesterday I spent the day with Food Service watching tray lines (breakfast and lunch) and delivering late trays and afternoon snacks. The tray lines ran very smoothly and it seems like they have it down to a science. They almost never had to stop the line during the whole hour it took to make all of the trays. The late trays and afternoon snacks are a little less organized, and it seems like it takes almost as long to do late trays and snacks as it does to do the whole tray line. The "runners" really do run all over the hospital delivering the trays and snacks. The food service department here at SRMC is completely different from UNC. It was really interesting to see all the differences. They are working towards starting room service similar to what UNC has, and hope to have it in place by the end of the year. They think this will really help to improve patient satisfaction.
Today I went up on a general medicine floor. We saw most of the patient's on this floor, and they had such a broad range of different diseases and nutrition requirements. At SRMC the physicians write the diet orders, so one thing that the dietitians do is try to negotiate with the physicians to change them if they need to be changed. It seems like some of the physicians are happy to change the order if the RD thinks the change needs to be made, but other physicians aren't as willing to make changes. Another thing that the RDs do here is to talk to the patients about whether they are enjoying their meals and any changes that can be made that will make them more likely to eat. It was really helpful with this part of the process to have seen the food service, because it this hospital is really important to know what food service has available to provide to patients.