Two Departments Pair Up to Deliver an Education Class

In healthcare, interdepartmental collaboration is often the key to a program’s success. This was proven true recently when the HHS culinary team and speech therapy department at our partner facility in Denver, Colorado paired up to tackle an area that needed attention — texture modifications. 

Through their collaboration, they were able to reduce 75% of texture modification plating errors. 

How did the teams achieve such results?

Simple. They pinpointed an area that needed attention and worked together to help increase awareness and decrease errors among the kitchen staff. 

Led by HHS Culinary Marketing Director Chad Allison, Corporate Registered Dietitian (RD) Liz Horton, and RD Ali Burtraw, the group partnered with the facility’s speech therapist and lead RDs to develop training materials and procedures specific to this topic. 

During a two-day training, the group presented the information to the entire culinary, speech therapy, and RD teams at the facility. They discussed how food texture modifications help decrease medical complications and patient length of stay, taught problem-solving skills on the topic, and provided an action plan for success. The presentation was well-received, and follow-up education was provided through handouts and increased quality assurance checks. 

Within a matter of a few weeks, the facility saw a 75% drop in incidents involving texture modification errors. Plus, an increase in tray line accuracy of over 90%. 

The largest outcome, however, was the pride the frontline culinary team members have shown in using their problem-solving skills to tackle texture modification challenges. 

HHS Vice President of Culinary Chance Smith shares, “Moments like this, where the best minds from both of our organizations can provide development to our team members and exceptional care to our community, are excellent examples of our values as a company in action.”