STARS Dietetics and Food Services team at the IHHC awards night

The STARS Dietetics and Food Services team served up a win in all categories at the recent Queensland Institute of Hospitality in Healthcare (IHHC) awards night!

The STARS team were recognised for their innovative service model, which was made possible as a new digital hospital that allowed teams to challenge norms and implement innovative models of care.

“Dietetics and Food Services at STARS aim to deliver collaborative and person-centred dietetics and food services to achieve positive experiences and outcomes for our consumers,” said Jennifer Ellick, STARS Manager of Dietetics and Food Services.

“Opening a brand new hospital was an exciting opportunity that enabled us to rethink traditional hospital food services, and build a service from the ground up, to better meets the needs and expectations of our consumers and partners.

“Drawing from experts around the state and feedback from hundreds of consumers, we’re really proud of the innovative and customer focused models we have implemented – including being the first in the state to implement the use of ‘on demand’ technology to support choice at point of service in dining rooms, four-point ID checks for enhanced patient safety, and digital ordering of pantry and staff supplies for improved stock and cost control.”

In order to achieve their vision of becoming leaders in innovative solutions for hospital food services, Jennifer knew their main asset would be their team, so they set out to recruit amazing people who lived the Metro North values and shared the team’s vision.

“We were grateful to learn that STARS Dietetics and Food Services had received six nominations across four categories at the Queensland Institute of Hospitality in Healthcare annual awards, and even more thrilled to have won awards in all four categories.”

Congratulations to the winners:

• IHHC Brightest Star Award: Rajesh Pundir, Chef, STARS
• IHHC Project of the Year Award: ‘Opening STARS: Customer focused digital food services’
• IHHC Values in Actions / Exceptional Customer Service Award: Nicole Aitcheson, Food Service Officer, STARS
• IHHC Leadership Award – Highly Commended: Brendan Host, Site Coordinator Food Services, STARS

State winners are now nominated for national awards, to be announced at the national IHHC conference in early 2022.