July was an exciting time at St Vincent’s Werribee with the launch of a new in-house dining service that enables all overnight patients to select from a healthy a la carte menu at a time of their choosing. This incentive is designed to deliver a hotel-style dining experience, by providing overnight patients with an extensive offering of quality meals made fresh to order onsite. The wide range of delicious meals is designed to cover all dietary requirements. St Vincent’s Werribee’s Director of Support Services Carolyn Moore said it could be a challenge balancing varying patient expectations regarding food tastes and preferences with strict food handling regulations.

“We engage with our consumer representatives regularly and involve them in taste testing menu items, looking at what’s on offer as well as how it is presented,” she said.

“Together with patient feedback, this got us thinking about a la carte menus and eventually led to the exciting roll out of room service dining at our St Vincent’s Private Werribee in July.

“Room service dining is the platinum standard for hospital patients. It combines restaurant quality food, hotel-style accessibility and clinical excellence.”

Under the new in-house dining service, meals are served at a time that works for the patient and arrive hot. The variety of choice has also increased. Patients now even have the option for all-day breakfast, should they choose to do so.

Previously, catering was done by an external provider that required patients to put in their order 24 hours before. With the new in-house dining service, all overnight patients can select from a healthy a la carte menu at a time of their choosing and the food will be delivered within 45 minutes of the order.

St Vincent’s Werribee General Manager Libby Fifis said the new initiative had transformed the mealtime experience for patients.  “Our patients are at the centre of everything we do. Therefore we constantly evolve and improve our services to deliver high quality and personalised care,” she said.

“Patient feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with comments often describing the meals as restaurant-quality. The new model also allows us to reduce our climate footprint by minimising food waste – a known contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.”

Sandra, the first patient to receive in-house meal service at St Vincent’s Werribee, said the meal was a “beautiful cherry on top” of her stay. “Using the word ‘beautiful’ would be an understatement of what I had for breakfast this morning. It was beyond my expectation to receive such a hot and delicious meal to complement my stay,” she said.

“The ordering process was easy and seamless. All I have to do is dial room service, and it was a quick delivery to my room. The friendly staff at St Vincent’s Private Werribee would be the highlight of my stay here, and the room service meal is a beautiful cherry on top.”The in-house dining experience is an expansion of St Vincent’s quality service provision; all within their three year- old state-of-the-art facility located in Werribee. 

The in-house dining experience is an expansion of St Vincent’s quality service provision; all within their three year- old state-of-the-art facility located in Werribee.