Electronic Meal Ordering Showcase - my personal summary

NHS England just completed their EMO-Day. A one-day marathon. 30 minute-slots of vendors presenting their meal ordering solutions to Trusts and Hospitals, IT-, Foodservice- and Clinical Managers. And my company was one of them.

This article is about the take-aways some of the audience where kind enough to share with me. And about that one thing that - in my opinion - could render the whole exercise meaningless if not (pun intended) catered for.

Kudos

Kudos to the NHS Team around Philip Shelley FIH, Tim Radcliffe and Nicola Strawther for arranging this day and to everyone that took time out of their busy schedules to invest in the future of their organisations and the wellbeing of their patients.

I attended, and this time not as impartial observer, but rather as a vendor, trying to support NHS Hospitals as well as I can and winning some business along the way.

Be warned: This time you'll read some vendor-tinted opinions.

I loved the interaction, the intense Q&A sessions and the feedback.

Take-aways worth sharing

It is great to see what the audience took away from our presentation and I was fortunate enough to get a glimpse at some of their notes to share with you. Here are three Examples:

"Mitigate patient risk – follows patient thru hospital" and "feed patient not bed"

"One-stop-shop" and "What is offered is compliant"

“Moves with patient if they move wards”

And that's really all that needs to be said.

Except.One.Thing.

One thing, that keeps nagging at my unconscious:

Real-time-Integration to your Patient Administration System.

Do you know what occurs between the time that allergies are changed in your patient administration system and the time this information is visible in your meal-ordering system.

Death. Death Occurs.

Let’s be clear: Not having real-time integration means playing with your patients lives. Plain and simple. Please consider that.

Let’s also be clear: Real-time means: instantaneous.

Real time means instantaneous.

It is not waiting for a file to be uploaded. It is not waiting for tablets to synchronise. It is instantaneous – without any human interaction being necessary. Ask for it. Make sure you get it.

That’s it for today.

As always, I am looking forward to your feedback, comments and challenges.

B