Reinventing patient dining
Royal Surrey County Hospital wanted to future-proof their patient catering service by upgrading the facility and using the space more efficiently. Here’s how they achieved that and more with the help of Steamplicity.
The brief
Cooking up a plan
The Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RSCH) is a leading general hospital with 559 beds, providing emergency and general hospital services across Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire.
Their primary objective was to enhance the patient experience by improving the quality and variety of hospital meals, whilst also freeing up more time for their clinical teams to deliver care.
We engaged with key stakeholders, including patients, clinical teams, and the Trust board with tastings and site visits to showcase Steamplicity meals.
The solution
A taste of efficiency
The new service was mobilised over two weeks in April 2018, focusing on:
Communication: The team collaborated with RSCH to engage key stakeholders, including patients, clinical teams, and dietitians.
Training: We trained their catering team to ensure our ready meal solutions could be delivered around the clock.
Logistics: We ensured the hospital had the right resources in place to consistently deliver high-quality meals on time.
“This system released over 30,000 hours back to our clinical colleagues to allow them to focus more time on patient care. Complaints almost disappeared overnight.”
- Gary Mountjoy, Associate Director of Capital, Estates, Facilities, Health & Safety Facilities
The outcome
A fresh start
To streamline the process, we set up a temporary cold room while refurbishing each ward kitchen, creating a new 100m² cold room and freeing up 141m² for 12 additional staff.
By transitioning away from traditional cooking methods, food waste at Royal Surrey was reduced from 4% to 2.5%, and energy usage decreased by 33%.
The Trust also found the Cuisine Centre’s electronic meal ordering system effective for allergy management, with ward hosts able to restrict meal choices on tablets based on a patient’s allergies.
Raising the bar
But that wasn't all! Steamplicity also revolutionised the patient experience at Royal Surrey, skyrocketing satisfaction scores to an impressive 98%. This achievement was driven by focusing on three key areas:
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Greater
choiceWe increased the Trust’s range of hot meals per service from 4 to 29 choices per day.
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Increased
temperatureCooking at ward level improved satisfaction of temperature by 21%.
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Better
qualitySurveys showed a 32% improvement in food appearance, a 47% increase in taste satisfaction, and 71% of patients rated the meal texture as very good or excellent.
“Steamplicity gives ward staff more time to focus on patients. Instead of spending time on ordering and delivering food, they can feed patients on time, so they can enjoy their meal hot.”
- Ward Sister, Bramshott
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