Member, Healthy Choice Menu Working Group

Interior Health is creating a Healthy Choice Menu for both acute and long term care sites. We are looking for patient partners to provide feedback on the menu for patient satisfaction by actively participating in bi-monthly meetings in September and October to review the menu.

Open to: Patient partners in the Interior Health region

Lead Organization or Department

Interior Health, Support Services

Aim

Implementing a standard menu across Interior Health will ensure a consistent patient/resident meal service, the ability to easily report Ministry and Licensing requirements for the Health Authority, and a centralized approach to oversee patient satisfaction, recipes and food costs. The menu will provide choice and variety while ensuring Ministry and Licensing requirements are met (sodium levels, local food, Canada’s food guide etc). The menu will also comply with health care diet standards, nutritional requirements and Interior Health’s food cost targets. Feedback from patient partners regarding the menu, recipes and choices is important to better understand the patients perspective in regards to the menu and patient satisfaction. The patient partner would contribute to the working group by offering feedback on the menu through the bi-monthly committee meetings.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of collaborate on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the health care partner will work together with you to formulate solutions and incorporate your advice and recommendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.

Eligibility

Experience working in a collaborative group setting, sharing their past experiences via storytelling, comfortable developing ideas, alternatives, and solutions.

Logistics

• Vacancies: 2
• Location, date, time and frequency: Bi-monthly, one or one & a half -hour meetings
• Connection method: Teleconference/webinar
• Commitment: One week to six months

Reimbursement

No expenses should be incurred for this working group, however if any expenses arise, reimbursement would be expedited upon submission.

Background

Food services feeds patients/residents at 55 sites for both Acute & LTC sites across IH. There are 38 different menus across Interior Health. Each site has the same responsibility for: Patient satisfaction, food costs and compliance with Ministry and Licensing requirements: (sodium levels, local food purchasing, Canada’s Food Guide, and other nutritional requirements.) The risk of centralizing the menu is providing enough choice for each site/community preference to ensure patient/resident satisfaction. In order to mitigate this risk, the menu needs to offer this choice with a variety of recipes for sites to choose, while still balancing all the other requirements. We will be meeting as a working group meeting in September to review the first draft of a menu. The stakeholders involved in this group consist of food service managers, acute and long term care dietitians, long term care managers, A voice for Dining with Dignity, population health, food services’ executive chef, and the project manager for Patient Choice Meal Service.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Jacquelyne Foidart
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Thompson Cariboo and Kootenays
250.879.1077
jfoidart@bcpsqc.ca