President's Column-Tim Sudderth
This month’s issue of SureNews is devoted to addressing a seldom recognized problem within most businesses. According to a study by Industry Week, one of the biggest barriers to effective productivity, communication, creativity, and customer service can be attributed to business functions that operate as silos.
According to Wikipedia, "The silo effect is a phrase that is currently popular in the business community to describe a lack of communication of common goals between departments in an organization". From a technology viewpoint, information silos are computer systems that do not share or share ineffectively, its information (data) with other computer systems.
At SureQuest Systems,Inc., we decided to take a closer look at silos and their impact on our own company. As expected, we discovered several of our own silos and realized how subtly they adversely affected our performance in simple, everyday operations. As a result SureQuest implemented a powerful software package for “Customer Relationship Management (CRM)”. Now when you call for Customer Support it doesn’t matter who you speak with – the CRM software provides your Support Specialist with a complete history of your previous calls and tracks your problem until it is resolved. Eliminate one Silo!
The recent emphasis in the Information Technology world to eliminate Silos from the overall information infrastructure inspired SureQuest Systems, Inc. to develop SureLink™, a data bridge, which provides Demographic Resident information to the Dietary Department in a timely and efficient manner and eliminates duplicate data entry.
Most facilities now utilize a
‘master’ patient information system to manage Electronic Medical Records,
Accounting, Clinical Information, Pharmacy Orders as well as admissions,
discharges and transfers. SureLink can transfer that basic patient/resident demographic
information to
the ThreeSquares®
Dining Management system in the Dietary
Department with the click of a mouse. SureLink eliminates duplicate data entry time,
improves communication, and ensures that complete information is received for
each resident/patient. SureLink keeps foodservice departments from remaining a
Silo assuring the Dietary Department has accurate and timely information
on the whereabouts of residents and any location changes that may affect
their dining requirements.
When information is entered into the “master” resident information system and sent to SureLink, SureLink automatically updates the resident information in the ThreeSquares database and prepares an audit report of the activity so other food and nutrition services can be performed on a timely basis. As an example, if a person is transferred to the third floor at 10:00 AM, their lunch can be pulled and served on the third floor with everyone else’s food – no waste, (lower food and labor cost), no disappointment (improved patient satisfaction) and no risk of a missed meal (decreased liability).
What happens when the Foodservice department has the same information as other departments? Everyone benefits! When information is shared, the benefits include: more time to spend with patients, improved communication, a more effective staff, harmony in the workplace, and a team environment.
Facility Spotlight: St Luke Lutheran Community
St Luke Lutheran Community's dietary department wanted to eliminate the tedious manual process of manually entering every new and transferred resident into their ThreeSquares® database, especially since the information had already been entered by other departments.
St Luke's has been a SureQuest Systems Inc. customer for the past nine years using ThreeSquares®, PCI, and Select Menus. St Luke's is also a customer of PointClickCare (PCC), a SureQuest partner that specializes in providing on-demand clinical, financial, and marketing software for Long-Term-Care customers.
Once St Luke's made their request known, SureQuest worked with PCC to install the SureLink interface module to allow census and room data information already entered in PCC to pass easily into ThreeSquares application. Once a day, the SureLink interface is run at the 233-bed combination skilled nursing and assisted living facility in North Canton, Ohio. CDM. "What it's done for us is to make our census and room data much easier to keep up with. A resident's information is entered into PCC once for use throughout the entire system," said Marie Dorazio, St. Luke's Registered Dietitian, who has been at the facility for 15 years. Now with just one click, Marie knows that the resident location, diet requirements and other dining-related information stays current so that the right meal gets delivered to the right resident at the right location at the right time. The facility is anxious to use additional features that are in development with SureLink including diet orders, plus height and weight.
Photo: Back from left:Marie Dorazio, RD; Vikki Weiner, CDM; Carol Addington,Scott Shaw, Foodservice Director (front)
Click here to view The St. Luke Community Case Study.
Enhance Communication, Reduce the Impact of Silos With SQ Support
The motto of SureQuest's Customer Support Department is "Always give clients more than they expect to get!" SureQuest's Support Staff can help our customers reduce silos in a number of ways. Here are a few examples:
- Verifying that customers have the most-up-to-date version of our software
- Suggesting more efficient methods of using Threesquares® or SureAssess™
- Keeping our customers informed with the latest schedule of free monthly Training Webinars which provide the latest information about our software and ensure a better return on your software investment.
- Ensure that we have the most up-to-date contact information for our customers
- Communicating with our customers regularly with electronic newsletters and announcements
Reducing Silos by Utilizing SureQuest Onsite Training
One of the best ways a SureQuest customer can reduce silos is to take advantage of our multiple software training opportunities. ThreeSquares® is packed with powerful tools to help you do your job and the best way to use these tools is to understand them.
As a new customer, you purchase training in which a Certified SureQuest Trainer comes to your facility. The training not only introduces you to the software, but the training also allows us to begin a personal relationship that we hope will last for many years. We get to meet and get to know your administrators, nursing staff, IT and other members of your team. By visiting the facility, our trainers gain a more complete understanding of your operations and your needs. Once we see your facility and understand your operation, we can better understand how best to serve you in the future.
We understand that ThreeSquares is a long term commitment on your part - and we promise that we feel the same way. As your use of ThreeSquares grows, you will undoubtedly see additional features that will add value to your operation. Questions will arise. As you add new personnel to your staff or experience employee turnover, you will need additional or ‘refresher' training. SureQuest can provide you with ‘customized' hourly training via the internet as well as free Webinar training each month on a variety of functionality. Our experience shows that the more you know, the more you will use ThreeSquares resulting in a greater return on your ThreeSquares investment.
In The Field With SureQuest Training
The Arcadia Retirement Residence Dietary Staff in Hawaii installed ThreeSquares® in February.
Front row from left to right: Michael Chong, Assistant Director of Information Technology; Daisy Reynolds, Dietary Coordinator. Back row: Flo Carlos, Assistant Food Services Director; Roy Werner, Executive Chef; and Susan Yamasaki, Food Services Director.
"Alma (Sudderth, SureQuest COO) did a great job of training us. Before she left, I asked her to walk us through each step. We learned best by repetition of the steps. We learned how to put in recipes and diet textures. It was also great to see menus and production reports," said Daisy Reynolds, Dietary Coordinator.
What's New at SureQuest Systems, Inc.
5.2 of ThreeSquares® was recently released. If you have not scheduled your update, please call Support at 800-383-1999, ext. 300. This update provides many new Report options, and part of the expanded utilization of Resident information and Select Menus. Version 5.2 enables the ability to run the latest PCI expansion module SureMobile™ for bar code inventory. Also included are updates to the USDA and the CNF Nutritional Databases to give you the ‘latest and greatest' generic nutritional information. For more information, please click here to see our release notes.
