Allied Health Assistant Supervisor Eliza Fairlie

The many digital systems within a digital hospital enable a team of dietetic assistants to fully realise their roles.

Systems such as Patient Flow Manager (PFM), electronic menu management and (CBORD), the integrated electronic medical record (ieMR), Patient Engagement System (PES) and Tray Monitor dashboards allow dietetic assistants at STARS to use digital workflows and data to tailor meals to the needs of individual patients.

“The role of a dietetic assistant is to support food service and malnutrition preventive workflows for patients,” STARS Acting Allied Health Assistant Supervisor Eliza Fairlie explained.

“The way that we use our digital systems is through several different applications: diet codes are added by staff to PFM, ieMR is the source of truth for allergies, and CBORD is our meal ordering system.

“We also use Tray Monitor to track the intake of all the patients’ meals, use the data to see what patients are eating, and turn this into a nutritional breakdown.”

Dietetic assistants look at patients’ meal data every single day and can determine who’s eating well or poorly. They then inform the dietitians based on this data, and through their delegation model, they can provide nutrition intervention for patients in a timely manner if required.

“I can’t imagine working in a paper-based hospital, because all these programs allow us to do our jobs more efficiently and work to our full scope,” Eliza said.

STARS also has digital systems that encourage patients to be independent and order their own food, either through the PES or in one of the patient dining rooms.

“Evidence-based practice suggests that patients who sit in a communal setting are more likely to consume more food, so that’s why we adopted the dining room model of care,” Eliza said.

“When patients come to the dining room, they’re greeted by dietetic assistants, they order their food from the Maître d’ (Food Services Officer) and are seated like they would be in a restaurant. We encourage friends and family to join.

“Our main role in the dining room is to support meal ordering and meal-time supportive strategies, while giving patients the autonomy to make choices around their own meals and work towards therapeutic goals.

“We get to know the patients really well – what they like, if they have specific requirements, if they need supportive eating utensils.

“That’s the part that means everything: seeing the difference you’ve made in the patient’s rehab journey.”