Engage and Prosper Build the Culture and They Will Come
Guest Post in POS Partners Inc. Blog Published on Wednesday, 23 March 2016 19:04
In my experience working with senior housing providers, I have seen what happens when employees find meaning in their work. I recall a teenage kitchen worker in our Kind Dining class, who shared he was just looking for work and happened to get a job in this community. His focus was all about the money. However, after working there for a while, he shared that, “The residents just grow on you, and you realize you can help them just by being present and nice. You realize many don’t have family. It makes me miss the family members I have lost, and this way I can give back.”
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Congratulations to OHCA Member Cindy Heilman
AHCA/NCAL Capital Connection February 2013
Cindy Heilman was highlighted in the Feb. 22, 2013 edition of the AHCA/NCAL Capitol Connection. In an article called ”New Publication Available: Hospitality for Boomers,” AHCA’s Karah DeMarco wrote they are excited to announce this highly informative resource is now part of their inventory. [more]
Kind Dining® Providing Ultimate Dining Experience
Pulse, a publication of Bethesda Health Group, Inc. Summer 2012 Volume 51, No3
Before too long, Bethesda residents will be enjoying their meals on real china with crisp ironed linens, delivered efficiently by uniformed wait staff who will help provide an experience rivaled only by the finest of restaurants.
Sound like a bit much for a senior care and service organization? Not to Murial Van Oordt, V.P. and Senior Administrator at Bethesda Dilworth (Oakland) [more]
Villa Crest Wins Again!
April 23, 2012
National HealthCare Corporation (NHC), one of the nation’s leading operators of senior care services, awarded Villa Crest Nursing and Retirement Center the highest NHC honor this year: the Center of the Year award. In addition, Villa Crest received NHC’s Five Star Excellence Certification Award, the premium category for operational performance. It recognizes the outstanding services provided by the center’s staff and publicly recognizes the center and its staff as one of NHC’s best.
Villa Crest embraced Kind Dining® Training in 2010 when they revamped their dining service and won the 2011 Optima Award from Long-Term Living Magazine.
Congratulations to Administrator Sarah McEvoy, Chef Manny Perry, and the fantastic team at Villa Crest!
Transforming Resident Dining Service Captures 2011 Optima Award
December 6, 2011
Photo Credit: Long-Term Living Magazine. From left to right: Villa Crest Administrator Sarah McEvoy, Long-Term Living Editor-in-Chief Patricia Sheehan, and Villa Crest Executive Chef Manny Perry.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Villa Crest Nursing and Retirement Center of Manchester, N.H. dramatically increased meal revenue while also improving both customer and staff satisfaction just over a one-year period. The efforts earned Villa Crest the national 2011 Optima award presented by Long-Term Living Magazine for innovative, outcome-oriented staff teamwork in long-term care communities. Key to the Center’s success is the innovative Kind Dining® training it implemented from the Portland, Oregon company, Higher Standards, LLC. The training transforms and elevates the dining experience in senior living communities.
Kind Dining®: Bringing Warmth to the Table is a 9-module training series developed and taught by service and nutrition expert Cindy Heilman, MS, DTR. The unique training is designed to incorporate hospitality and empathy with proper serving techniques. Research clearly indicates that residents who are highly satisfied with meals, food and the dining experience are more satisfied in their living environment and healthier overall. On a typical day, many residents spend as much as 60 percent of their time preparing for, engaging in, or returning from meals.
Villa Crest staff embraced Kind Dining® training as they embarked on a significant dining room overhaul, moving from a traditional approach with limited options and a rigid daily schedule to a new restaurant-style dining experience called CHOICES. Villa Crest improved the menu and service by offering freshly-made fare, adding flexibility to the dining room hours of operation, and implementing principles of hospitality through Kind Dining®. The dining experience was transformed to focus on resident-centered care and satisfaction. After the training, staff understood the importance of meal service from the residents’ perspective.
The CHOICES restaurant was implemented in April of 2010. In a little over a year, Villa Crest increased its guest meal revenue by an impressive 80%. The changes also resulted in increases in resident and staff satisfaction scores. Additional evidence gathered by Villa Crest indicates that social activity has increased and personal connections among residents have been enhanced by the culture change in the dining room.
“Kind Dining® training truly transformed our operation. Everything from small details like having servers understand how to respectfully address our residents to providing extended hours of meal service resulted in a significant improvement in our meal revenue and resident satisfaction. People aren’t born knowing how to provide good service—they need to be taught. I’m grateful to Cindy Heilman for her expertise,” said Sara McEvoy, Villa Crest administrator.
“I’m thrilled that Villa Crest won the Optima Award,” said Cindy Heilman, the creator of the Kind Dining® training and CEO of Higher Standards, LLC. “I applaud administrator Sarah McEvoy and her partners for taking the steps to make a positive impact on the lives of their residents. The results they achieved from transforming meal service shows how vital the dining experience is in the success of senior care communities.”
Culture Change Drives CHOICES
Long-Term Living September 13, 2011
A revamped dining program empowers residents
Sarah McEvoy talks about the four daughters who showed up like clockwork every Monday around mealtime to visit their 98-year-old mother, a resident at Villa Crest Nursing and Retirement Center. “We didn’t have a comfortable place to accommodate them,” says McEvoy, the high-spirited administrator of the nonprofit community for the past 14 years. The main dining room was nicely appointed with linen tablecloths and fresh flowers, but seating only accommodated 64 of the 155 residents and offered no space for guests. [more]
Quality Service Can Help to Create a Sense of Community
Nation’s Restaurant News August 11, 2008
Feeding young adults at a camp in the Alaskan wilderness, Cindy Heilman had an epiphany about foodservice. She had quit an earlier job as a restaurant manager to follow her husband, an employee with the forest service, to the Last Frontier, where she found work as a camp cook. The 20-something campers came from all over the United States to learn about the environment, and despite the beautiful surroundings and unique experience, they were sometimes homesick. Heilman came to realize how [more]
