Morrison Food & Nutrition at Alton Memorial Hospital have begun using advanced technology to obtain patient meal orders at bedside.

A software program called My Dining allows the café staff to transition away from the manual process of taking orders. The staff instead uses iPads with the My Dining software to ensure the inpatients are getting what they need – and nothing they don’t need.

“My Dining is teamed with Epic, which is our electronic medical records system,” said Ken Derienzo, the director of Food & Nutrition for Morrison at AMH. “So anything that wouldn’t be allowed in a patient’s diet won’t show up on the iPad when we are placing the order for that patient. So it’s another step forward in patient safety.”

My Dining officially began at AMH with lunch on Tuesday, Jan. 14.

Patient information, including demographics, room number, diet order, allergies and supplements are interfaced with Epic and are automatically updated in the system.

“When a patient is discharged or diet changes occur, this will update in real time,” Derienzo said. “It is critical that diet orders are entered correctly and in a timely manner.  The diet must be available in My Dining before the patient can be fed.” 

Nutritional compliance is tracked and visual alerts notify associates if the order exceeds allowed limits.  Once orders are obtained from the patient, they are stored in the system until tray tickets are printed prior to each meal period.  If changes occur with the diet order, the order will move to a HELD status to ensure the proper diet is served. 

The tray delivery process has not changed. Patients can continue to expect trays to be delivered at the current times.

Pictured above: ​Shawna Watts of Morrison Food and Nutrition Services takes an order from a patient on her iPad on Jan. 14, the first day of My Dining at AMH.