Inside Duke Medicine

From truck to tray

Meet the people behind Durham Regional’s food and nutrition delivery.

DRH Food & Nutrition Delivers

By Carol Clayton

What does it take to deliver three meals to the more than 220 patients and approximately 1,100 visitors and staff who dine in the hospital cafeteria each day?

Observe the Food & Nutrition team in action, and you have witnessed a finely-tuned orchestra. With each employee hitting an essential note in the complicated-yet harmonious-production, this “orchestra” delivers the right ingredients to the right patient at the right time, while at the same time running a restaurant and catering business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Here’s a typical morning in the life of Sam Powell, who begins each day unloading and preparing food so the “orchestra” can work their magic.

5 am

• Sam begins unloading groceries from the delivery truck. Approximately 500 boxes of bread, milk and other groceries are delivered to DRH almost every day and placed in the appropriate storage. While unloading, Sam greets Mary Humphrey who is making fresh baked brownies from scratch for patients. Close by, Rochelle Brown is making sandwiches for the cafeteria and all the catering events for the day while Monica Ford is putting the salad bar together for lunch.

6 am

• Sam continues to unload the groceries and stock.
• He meets cooks Vince Battle and Chris Decosta. Vince has been prepping and cooking breakfast for the cafeteria since 5 am, while Chris is preparing and cooking breakfast for patients.
• Rhonda Modlin is stocking chips, drinks and supplements. Next, she will pull items from cold storage and refrigeration for her co-workers who are preparing to cook lunch. She will pull all pizzas for the cafeteria and the patients who ordered pizza for lunch.

6:30 am

• The cafeteria opens for breakfast.
• Phyllis Cadlet begins serving breakfast in the cafeteria while Catherine Joyner and Beverly Simpson run the cash registers.
• Hazel Pringle prepares the deli bar for lunch.
• Mary just placed the brownies in the oven. While they bake, she cooks the non-entrée items and cuts and boils potatoes for patient and cafeteria entrées.

7 am

• The patient tray line (located in the kitchen) begins. That’s where Lafayette Artis, Sheila Bobbitt, Teresa Harding, Ophelia Hall, Barbara Giles and Ariel Moore prepare every patients’ breakfast plate, along with silverware, drinks and napkins. The trayline operates two hours for each meal. When the line is not running, the team cleans dishes from the most recent meal.
• While Sam continues to unload the truck, he greets patient menu technicians Shamera Boykin, Sherri Couch, Nina Emmons, Shanaya Foster, Calina Hobson, Frenchie Roscoe and Derek Walker who collect the breakfast trays for patients. There are five patient menu technicians on each shift. They deliver trays to patients three times a day, every day of the year. Each technician has one or two units, and will deliver all meals for that unit. And, he or she will take each patient’s order with a hand held palm pilot. When the team finishes breakfast delivery, they will come back for the lunch trays, and will start the whole process again.

8 am

• Chris and Vince begin cleaning the grills to prepare for lunch.
• In the Diet Office, Krystal Lubitz and Jennifer Young discuss Ms. Bailey’s milk shake. From a computer, Krystal, who pulls and tracks all the orders, saw that Ms. Bailey is a diabetic. She called Jennifer, who is a registered dietitian, to see if Ms. Bailey can have a shake.

The food services team-from the cook to the patient menu technician-is responsible for ensuring that each patient receives the proper meal. Many times, the diet ordered by the physician will restrict salt or sugar either on the tray or cooked in the food. Food & Nutrition serves as a safeguard for ordering mistakes that may occur, and Jennifer is part of the interdisciplinary team that works with physicians to care for our patients.

“It’s an orchestra every day. If one part is missing, it throws everything off,” says Jennifer. “For example, the nurses give insulin to patients based on the tray line schedule. If the tray line doesn’t start at 7 am, a diabetic patient may not get food in time to get their insulin when they need it.”

10 am

• The cafeteria is closed and the team begins to clean and prepare for lunch. Monica and Rochelle set up the salad bar and Rochelle makes sandwiches.
• Phyllis cleans every table and replenishes silverware in the cafeteria.
• Trudie Watson prepares food for the daily lunch special.
• James Walker, Ingredient Control Cook, prepares the major entrées for lunch. He adds ingredients for every meal so the cooks can prepare the meal.
• Chris and Vince begin cooking lunch for patients and the cafeteria.

11 am

And, the beat goes on. In about another hour, Sam will finish unloading the 500boxes from the truck, and will have placed them in storage rooms. He will then help bring boxes to the food preparers and cooks, and he will determine what inventory he needs to order for tomorrow.

At 7 am, 11 am and 4 pm every day, the “orchestra” delivers its “music” to the 220 awaiting patients and approximately 1,100 visitors and staff who dine in the hospital cafeteria. This happens 1,095 times a year regardless of conditions.

“Often, all it takes for someone’s day to turn around is a smile and comforting word,” says Andrew Hennis, Food & Nutrition director. “And in addition to the organized chaos of food preparation, our team delivers that smile and comforting word- nourishment for the soul.”

Always Here to Serve

• It’s a blizzard outside, but the band plays on. Each patient receives the nourishment he or she needs on time. The cafeteria is ready for business-serving not only employees and patients, but also people in the community who have lost their power.

• There’s a call the last day of the Magnet survey, and Nursing has requested 4,500 cookies for tomorrow. Food & Nutrition delivers. Several staff shift their schedules in order to prepare, bake and box the cookies.

• It’s the holiday season, and it’s time for the annual buffet and breakfast for employees, volunteers and retirees. What does this mean for Food & Nutrition? The team meets in October to begin preparations. The grocery order includes:
• 390 pounds of turkey
• 343 pounds of ham
• 400 pounds of potatoes
• 360 pounds of green beans
• 1440 rolls
• 105 pounds of cornbread stuffing
• 120 pounds of cranberry sauce
• 72 gallons of yams
• 48 pounds of marshmallows to cover the yams
• 96 quarts of eggnog
• 1,152 slices of chocolate cake
• 60 pecan pies
• 170 pounds of cheesecake
• 990 slices of bacon
• 80 pounds of eggs

All this is going on while the team feeds the patients and visitors in the cafeteria as usual!

Those featured in this article are just a few of the 80 people employed in Food & Nutrition.