QEII Hospital marked a milestone month this August, celebrating the new Kitchen grand opening on 24 August ahead of Room Service on Demand go-live just a day later.
Joined by the Food Services team, project team members, and allied health staff, the grand opening invited some of QEII’s longest-serving Food Services retirees to officiate the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
With over 100 years of combined service to the QEII kitchen, retirees Marilyn Thorpe, Gwenneth Lutter, Cathy O’Conner and Sharon Shultz were invited to cut the ribbon on the new kitchen, before taking a guided tour of the new facilities with Project Planning Officer Operations, Jayden Mills.
Boasting brand new infrastructure, added storage and real-time monitoring software, the kitchen’s offerings are boosting efficiency and reducing food waste across the hospital.
In a heartwarming speech, Jayden thanked the returned retirees for their many decades of service to the QEII community, and to the evolution of the kitchen through the years.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without you, and the foundational work you have done over the decades. The lessons you have taught all of us were significant to the success of this project," he explained.
"You truly bleed MSH values every day, and we worked hard to ensure those values were not lost through this huge project," he said.
In a milestone move for the community hospital, QEII is the first in Metro South to launch the Room Service On Demand model, after seven years of planning.
The new menu offers all-day breakfast, snacks, drinks, and a wide variety of hot and cold meal options to suit every patient’s dietary needs.
Meals are prepared to order and delivered to the bedside in ~45 minutes of ordering, reducing food wastage by up to 50 percent across the hospital.
For more information about ordering meals using room service on demand, visit the patient information page.
Congratulations to all involved in the planning and delivery of this pioneering project for Metro South Health.