My name is Bill Lutz, and up until the mid-nineties I was content owning several different fine-dining restaurants in Central Ohio. Then I was invited to experience the foodservice environment in several long-term care and assisted living facilities in my area. I was STUNNED at what I experienced.
Residents waiting in the dining room disoriented and sometimes asleep; C.N.A.’s sitting at one end of the dining room looking like prison guards; food sitting in the steam-table all morning getting ready for lunch. It was then when I witnessed my first tray-line. I saw my first resident take one look at her tray and announce “That is too much food….I can’t eat all of that!” She immediately started eating her dessert.”
That is where I started, and now I am privileged to help educate and implement compliant systems in which both residents and staff are proud.
Ordering meals at the time of service, problem solving at the point of service, and inviting the resident to participate in the dance that we all experience when we go out to eat at a restaurant puts the resident at the center of the process.
You and I have the opportunity to be, or not be, a repeat diner. Our residents do not.
While our residents are not interested in fine dining, they are interested in “good, old-fashioned, home-cooked food,” and they would like a variety and to be able to choose from several items at mealtime. Together we can radically change the dining experience of our industry, bringing dignity and satisfaction to those we serve.
