Room Service Coordinator

FLSA Status

Job Role Summary

The Room Service Coordinator is responsible for maintaining electronic diet orders, supplements, tube feeds, and nourishments per physician’s orders, as well as communicating patient needs with other medical practitioners. This position is responsible for essential tasks associated with patient meal service by assisting patients and guests with meal selections via centralized call center and/or at bedside.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Embodies excellent customer service skills, assisting with meal tray assembly, delivery, and sanitation, and serving as a resource to other service personnel throughout the hospital system; works in a team-based environment and communicates daily with patients, visitors, guests, and other personnel within the department and on hospital floors in order to maintain optimal patient feeding
Offers appropriate menu selections to patients and guests in accordance with physician-prescribed diet restrictions; obtains patient meal orders via electronic menu management system in conjunction with phone system, and routes tickets to kitchen for tray assembly; follows established call center and bedside scripting in order to obtain room service meal orders; advises patients on allowable food items based on prescriptive diet order; applies necessary changes to patient meal orders to meet established meal goals
Follows hospital and departmental procedures related to patient identification and standards of care in order to maintain patient safety; washes hands upon entry and exit of patient rooms, dons appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), etc; prepares and verifies enteral formulas, nutritional supplements, and snacks for prescribed patients; utilizes active patient identification per hospital standard of patient name and date of birth
Embodies excellent customer service by upholding a professional attitude as a representative of the department when interacting with guests, visitors, patients, and employees; resolves patient and visitor complaints in a timely and efficient manner; obtains feedback information from patients in order to assess overall service performance; advocates for patient care by communicating directly with Registered Dietitians, Certified Dietary Managers, or other necessary personnel in order to fulfill specialized patient requests; serves in the department command center and follows emergency procedures as directed by the incident commander; communicates with nursing staff regarding patients who need special accommodations such as isolation trays, insulin patients, therapeutic needs, allergies, etc.
Handles food and food service areas in accordance with Indiana State Department of Health, Joint Commission regulations and departmental policy and procedures; follows a daily cleaning schedule of assigned areas in order to maintain cleanliness/sanitation; identifies and safely uses chemical cleaning agents stocked for various pieces of service equipment, table tops, floors, and dish machine; prioritizes hand-hygiene within the kitchen in addition to utilizing disposable gloves when indicated; adheres to departmental hygiene and dress-code standards in order to provide safe food to vulnerable populations; uses the First-In First-Out (FIFO) rotation method when supplying inventory items to patient floors and/or re-stocking supplies for the patient room service line
Maintains productivity standards in order to assure patient meal orders and supplies are obtained, assembled, and delivered in established time frames; obtains meal orders in established time frame in correlation with daily patient census and assigned workload; works closely with menu management software to support all job and department related tasks; logs inventory supplied to various cost centers via requests routed throughout the health care system; updates patient information to maintain accurate records and runs reports related to patient and/or retail feeding; may process payments for non-patient feeding requests
Completes other associated job duties as assigned; 

Job Requirements

•    Associate’s degree; OR two years of experience in customer service or food and nutrition services in a comparable position
•    Must complete training and competencies as Room Service Associate as a prerequisite for job placement
•    One year of experience in food and nutrition services with an emphasis on therapeutic diets and patient care
•    Ability to read, write and understand English required; ability to read, write and understand Spanish preferred 
 

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

•    Knowledge of computer functions and ability to work with Microsoft Office and related hospital electronic menu management and health record systems
•    Ability to effectively use electronic menu management system and electronic health record (EHR) programs as related to essential job functions
•    General knowledge of safe food storage, preparation and handling 
•    Knowledge of therapeutic diet restrictions including mechanical consistencies 
•    Strong customer service skills, including courteous telephone skills and ability to communicate effectively in a professional manner with food service personnel, hospital staff, guests and patients
•    Demonstrates proper use of equipment as related to essential job assignments
•    Ability to follow infection control policies and procedures
•    Ability to follow all Food and Nutrition Services policies and procedures