The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has improved efficiency, reduced wastage and saved costs with a state of the art catering solution from Toshiba and Datasym (UK).
The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the first in the area to be awarded Foundation status, has implemented Toshiba ST-60 POS terminals on Datasym.POS software in its Lakeside Restaurant, deli and tea bars in The Royal Bournemouth Hospital to give complete management catering control. A modern acute hospital using the latest technology to provide a large number of core services, The Royal Bournemouth needed a more efficient solution than its existing proprietary cash register system.
While the hospital’s ‘Menumark’ back-office computerised control catering system supplied by Datasym (UK), provided total visibility of spend for managing the catering operation, including recipe production, planning and requisitions, The Royal Bournemouth Hospital had no link into the tills in the restaurant and cafe areas, making it difficult to manage the front-end catering operation.
An essential consideration was the ability to link via a computer network to the hospital’s Menumark back office system – the hub of the catering department.
Datasym UK’s innovative Datasym.POS hospitality EPOS terminal software provided the perfect answer, enabling seamless integration to the front-end point of sale software on Toshiba’s ST-60 integrated touch screen terminals.
The tills were linked via the hospital’s network to the Catering Department’s back office system, allowing sales information to be transferred direct onto Menumark – saving time and linking into all the other catering areas within the hospital, such as the restaurant and cafes, providing The Royal Bournemouth with the optimum hospital catering solution. The compact touch screen design of the Toshiba ST-60 terminals made the ST-60 the perfect choice for such an environment.
For security, fingerprint sign-on, one of the latest developments from Datasym.Pos, was integrated into the solution.
Networking of the tills to the hospital’s back office system has enabled new stock lines to be added to all of the hospitality outlets simultaneously. Real-time price changes are now done in seconds from the back office eliminating the previous lengthy and time consuming process of manually inputting prices, allowing far greater operational efficiency.
In terms of security, the fingerprint sign-on ensures that each operator has to sign on for each transaction, giving total traceability for all transactions to each food service assistant and complete accountability of cash flow.
Reporting is improved with regular reports on all sales transactions; there is now visibility of where and when a transaction took place, providing essential departmental accountability and far greater accuracy of stock control. Timed reports can also be produced to allow detailed analysis, for example, the number of customers served between certain times to show trends, profit margins and peak periods.
The Toshiba touch screen menu options are intuitive and therefore easy for staff to operate, which is especially important at the restaurant’s busiest times (during visiting hours), as well as reducing staff training needs.
The small footprint of the ST-60 ensures the till can fit into the smallest of counter spaces.
Speaking about the business benefits of the Toshiba / Datasym system, Terry Reeves Hospital Catering Services Manager at The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Chairman of the Wessex Branch of HCA (Hospital Catering Association), said: ‘Now we have the Toshiba tills in the restaurant and bars linking directly into the Menumark back-office catering system, with the exception of hospitality, all catering revenue and expenditure now goes through the tills enabling full and accurate reporting giving me clear visibility of gross, net profit, stock control and complete control of costs. Fingerprint sign-on has eradicated the previous problem of identifying which staff member is operating which till at any one point and which operator is responsible for errors.
Unlike the old cashier sign-on system, it is impossible to duplicate a fingerprint so it is far more secure, eliminating the potential for fraud’.
The next stage planned is to install a further Toshiba ST-60 touch screen till with Datasym.POS software into the restaurant at Christchurch Hospital in August 2006.
May 2006 saw the introduction of hand held units for stock control at The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospital, which has enabled the hospital to carry out weekly stock checks for all areas, including vending machines.
Prior to this, the hospital had relied on monthly stock checks which had to be manually recorded and fed into the system. With the new hand held units, stock in all areas can now be electronically read and automatically updated into the Menumark back office system, allowing stock to be checked on an ongoing basis, saving a great deal of time and resulting in even greater efficiencies.
A further initiative implemented in the spring of 2006 was the introduction of swipe cards to all staff, enabling all staff meals to be recorded through the Toshiba tills, which means an impressive 98% of all catering sales are now centrally controlled.
An innovative and forward thinking Trust, The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals are planning in August 2006 to trial Palm Top devices, utilising wireless technology, for collating patient meal choices using Datasym UK’s latest development, MenuMate.
Commenting on this planned development, Terry Reeves said: ‘It has long been the aim of every hospital catering department to collect meal orders as close to serving time as possible.
This will make us far more efficient and have a dramatic affect on wastage which in a multi million pound operation can equal a significant amount’.
When asked about the reasons for selecting the Datasym / Toshiba solution Terry Reeves said: ‘We chose Datasym because they are known and trusted throughout the NHS due to their wealth of experience in hospital catering solutions.
We were more than happy to accept their recommendation of Toshiba tills due to their reputation as a quality manufacturer providing excellent reliability.
The confidence in the system and the relationship and support received from Datasym and Toshiba has been excellent.
With two sites and 67 staff, we are constantly looking at ways of improving our efficiencies and service.
We are looking forward to working closely with both companies in the coming months to refine the system and enhance the catering management service within the hospital to help us achieve our objectives’.
