Kaizen Team Challenge

The benefits for working within such a large health care organisation is that we are able to share our great depth of knowledge, and have the support from our Operational Leadership Team. One example is Kaizen, a Japanese word for continuous improvement. Late last year 6 people were selected to be a part of the Kaizen challenge and after rigorous mental and physical training were flown to the UK and Spain to be involved in a 2 week intensive personal and team learning experience. The team then came back and delivered their findings at our February General Manager's Forum. They had spent 2 weeks reviewing Bupa aged care facilities in both Spain and England, reviewing 3 objectives - Food, Purchasing and Repairs and Maintenance. We have seen quite a few new changes since this Forum. One area that seen some improvement is in food services. It is the simple things, like Seasonal Produce updates from Lahood our Fruit and Veg suppliers, being a foody I love the concept of only purchasing food that is in season, as it really does taste so much better. It has also then raised enough discussion around our dining experiences that we are looking closely at:
Times we have meals - is 5pm really when our people want to have dinner.
Do our people want to have a larger meal at dinner time instead of lunch time.It had been proven that behaviour issues decreased with a larger meal later in the evening, and residents slept better.
All wil be revealed, we are putting it to the people, and all facilites have been asked to conduct a Food Services Focus group to ask the residents what they would like, food is such an important part of what we do, how can we make it a better experience. Speaking of food, I'm thrilled to say I'm off to "Coffee Shop", it comes around quickly......