Currently the newest version available is Version ...retrieving data...
"CaterMan" is a
Windows based computer application,
designed to be used within Care
and Nursing Homes, to help the kitchen staff in
presenting the daily m
enu, managing the residents and staff choices, and as well
in maintaining good, safe and accurate records, compliant with the
CQC and
Environmental Health guidelines and regulations.
Using over 40 databases at one time, "CaterMan"
generates daily files containing almost all the data necessary for archiving,
according to the present legislation.
Very easy to use, its main aim is to reduce considerably the paper-work related
time that kitchen staff usually spends, leaving them more time to do their main
job: cooking and serving the meals.
As "CaterMan" is using "ghost" local databases in addition to the regular ones,
combined with a constant report generating, the general loss of data is very
unlikely, even in case of a power failure and/or hardware related malfunctions;
the worst thing can happen is the loss of the last-minute introduced data, or
the corruption of the main program, without affecting the previously entered
records (disclaimer: except when the computer or hard disk is
totally destroyed,
which is practically impossible without malintent).
Concepted and programmed by Dumitrica Dorin Lucian, "CaterMan" was used in Beech Lodge within Sussex Health Care from May 2017 until October 2021, and it is under a constant improvement, updates being provided via this website by automatic update or manual download; they can be delivered and installed "in person" as well.
Special thanks to house manager Kent Damole and chef manager David Linton, who believed in this idea, supported and encouraged the development of this application.
I would also like to convey my thanks to Paul Mrozowski from RCS Solutions Inc. for his brilliant RcsCalendar which is very useful in this application.
"Since being in post the manager and the chef had introduced an interactive electronic menu planning system. The system included illustrated pictures of food that people who lived at the home could choose by touching the screen. The system also included information about each person, their likes and dislikes and flagged up special occasions such as birthdays three days in advance. The system incorporated a feedback screen for each meal, with emoji pictures to show varying levels of like or dislike. Once people had eaten their meal staff entered how much the person ate. This information was then locked and had to be signed off as complete by the manager. The information within the new system was then used to inform menu planning, the managers quality assurance and could be used when reviewing people's needs."
- CQC report excerpt, November 2017 -
"A member of the staff team had devised an electronic system to record people's menu choices and visually display the menu options that were available on each given day. The staff member told us, "I'm continually working on the programme, but it enables us to have oversight of people's dietary requirement, any allergies and whether people need support to increase their weight. Each month, people's weights are added to the system and we can monitor if they are losing weight or putting on weight and then adjust any dietary requirements." The service had received positive feedback from healthcare professionals regarding the implementation of this system. One professional commented,'the innovation of the staff to place the electronic menu screen adds a positive feedback as to how staff assess the individual needs of the people.'"
- CQC report excerpt, December 2019 -
"The service had implemented an innovative way to support people to make choices about their meal preferences. This was currently being trialled in one of the lodges. The chef had developed a visual system to support people to make their food choices. This was displayed on a screen in the dining room and included photographs of meals presented on the various plates and equipment used by people, and information about their dietary needs, preferences and allergies. The chef showed us feedback comments entered by staff about the person's like or dislike of the food and these were used to create a more personalised menu for people."
- CQC report excerpt, November 2020 -
"CaterMan" Features:
A. Executing at application's start up:
- beautifies and rectifies the previous day reports
- checks the completion of legally required records, and alerts if some are missing
- checks the completion of the required recordings and flags them if due
- checks the upcoming residents birthday, and alerts if any, 3 days in advance
- checks the existence of a special menu for the day and loads it, or loads the daily menu
- checks the menu and adjusts the records accordingly in the weekly menu
- uploads the daily menu on the server, if internet connection available
- displays the menu of the day
- displays date, time, chef on duty and the latest status (latest major change)
- loads the next day's menu (taking in account any special menu), and prepares it to be displayed by clicking the arrow on the lower-right corner of the screen
- loads the residents and staff lists, and their already made orders
- loads or initiates the visitor's ordering number
- if breakfast time, displays the breakfast screen
- if someone's birthday, displays a birthday screen
- checks the ordering reminders, and if necessary displays them on the kitchen's monitor
- generates easily printable reports in HTML format (web pages), automatically, on input or on request
B. Automation:
- due to its automation engine, calculates the date and adjust the menu accordingly
- decides whether it's lunch or supper time
- blocks or unblocks staff member's ordering privileges, accordingly to the order time limit, time of day and/or completion condition
- shows resident's weight development in menu choice grid and in the K.R.O.V. - can be toggled on/off from the administrator page
- recalculates meal numbers, first meal, second meal, sandwiches, normal texture, fork mashable or liquidized texture, and displays the info in the K.R.O.V. (Kitchen Real Time Ordering Viewer)
- calculates staff lunch money
- shows breakfast screen starting from and ending on defined times, settable from the "Administrator" page
- allows or denies staff lunch ordering, depending on time keys settable from the "Administrator" page
- allows or denies the use of the "Entertainment" section, depending on time keys settable from the "Administrator" page and the enabled/disabled status of the option
- transcribes the resident's choices into a HTML report at the time set in the "Administrator" page
- at a defined time, settable from the "Administrator" page, calculates the ordering frequency of the day's meals (in percentage), saves them and writes them in a report
- closes the application at a time set in the "Administrator" page
C. User input:
- allows changing of daily or next day's main meal, carbohydrates, vegetables, puddings, and rewrites the daily and weekly menu accordingly; updates the server as well --> requires administrator password
- allows changing of chef on duty, without modifying the pre-set database --> requires administrator password
- allows the entering of residents meal choices
- allows modifying resident's menu choices --> requires administrator password
- if time is right, allows staff to make their lunch order --> requires individual staff passwords or administrator password
- allows modifying or cancelling of staff orders --> requires individual staff passwords or administrator password
- allows logging of payment for staff lunch orders --> requires administrator password
- allows adding or editing staff member's credentials --> requires administrator password
- allows changing of visitors number --> requires activity staff password or administrator password
- allows feedback completion by the staff --> requires fully made resident's choices and staff individual passwords
D. Commands and other user interactions:
- allows the input of opening/closing check records --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of the day's food temperatures --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of fridge/fridges temperatures for the current day --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of holding cabinets/rooms/trolleys temperatures for the current day --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of cleaning completion records for the current day --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of monthly cleaning completion records for the current month --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of order reminders for the current day --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of residents weighing results for the current month --> requires staff individual passwords and/or administrator or nurse in charge password
- allows the recording of reheating/cooling processes --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of monthly First Aid Kit checks --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of thermometer calibration records --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the input of monthly cleaning completion records --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- allows the storage, viewing and editing of recipes --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords, but only for editing
- allows the storage, viewing and editing of Safety Data Sheets --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords, but only for editing
- allows clocking in /out --> requires staff individual passwords
- allows the viewing of the "Black List" (the list of staff with arrears in lunch orders payments)
- allows the input of messages in "Chefenger"
- allows the input of invoices, and permits their scanning as well; calculates the real-time budget situation --> requires kitchen staff individual passwords or administrator password
- if existent, shows the resident's feedbacks that requires chef's attention, and allows chefs to sign them off --> requires kitchen staff individual password
- if existent, shows the resident's feedbacks that requires the manager's attention, and allows the manager or nurse in charge to sign them off --> requires manager's individual password or nurse in charge password
- allows toggling of sound on/off
- allows toggling of background music on/off/pause
E. Reporting:
- budget situation report --- generated and modified automatically, after each invoice recording or modifying
- invoice scan backup --- scanned invoices, can be viewed with the viewer from the "budget situation" screen
- cleaning records situation --- grouped by weeks, generated and modified automatically, after each "cleaning records" input
- feedback forms --- grouped by house and resident's name, generated and modified automatically after each stage of feedback entering (see manual)
- pre-defined menus --- generated automatically upon their creation, and modified each time the chefs are doing amendments
- menus --- grouped by weeks, generated and modified automatically each time a new week starts or changes are made that affects that week
- open-close checks ---- grouped by month, generated and modified each time the records are being edited
- residents choices --- automatically generated at a pre-set time of the day, containing the daily menu and the resident's choices
- staff meals-"Black List" --- automatically generated and modified each time a staff member orders lunch
- staff meals-individual records --- automatically generated when a particular staff members makes/edits/cancels an order, contains the "history" of their orders and payments
- staff meals-monthly lunch money situation --- automatically generated when a staff member orders/edits/cancels a lunch order, grouped by year, contains the situation of ordered lunch value vs. received amount total
- delivered goods temperatures - grouped by month, automatically generated each time when an invoice is recorded, contain the recorded temperature at delivery
- food temperatures --- automatically generated each time a meal's temperature is recorded
- fridge/freezer temperatures --- automatically generated each time a fridge or freezer's temperature is being recorded
- house's main meals, their recurrence on the menu and their ordering frequency in percentage
- late records and reasons for adding them later
- cooling/reheating logs
- holding cabinets/rooms/trolleys temperature logs
- first aid kit check records
- thermometer calibration sheets
- monthly cleaning checklist
- monthly residents weighing results complete with development graphs
- former residents list, complete with date and reason of departure
- former residents weighing results backup, for the year they left the home
Benefits of using "CaterMan":
Besides the obvious reason, which is providing a nice, professional look to the way the menu is displayed, using "CaterMan" has multiple benefits, such as:
- the application records, stores and archives virtually all the essential data required by the CQC and Environmental Health
- thanks to its automated menu generated engine, you can always see the daily menu, the next day menu, and as well the weekly menu
- the weekly menu archive changes in correlation to the daily made changes
- the daily menu is saved on a remote server, and it can be accessed from any internet connected device, even from outside the Care Home
- a very simple and user friendly interface makes it easy to use by the personnel
- all sensitive data is protected by passwords, so only the authorised staff can access and modify it
- it keeps an accurate track of all staff ordering and paying
- keeps accurate track of what residents had for lunch/supper every day-in case of emergency, these records can be easily and fast brought up, to investigate the cause of a possible discomfort
- data can be easily seen and processed; it is not necessary to open the database to check records, as everything is generated in internet-pages like reports
- due to the previously mentioned report generating, the data ca be easily printed out whenever the need arises
- "CaterMan" requires that the entering of data must be done at the appropriate times; failing to do so will result in blank data which cannot be filled at a later time, so there are very small chances of encountering "fabricated" records
- once entered, the data is stored in its original form, thus the chances of "manipulating" the records are practically null (for example, when doing the feedbacks, after the carers enter the data this will be "locked", so neither the chefs or manager can modify what the carers reported)
- the KROV (Kitchen Real Time Ordering Viewer), alias the monitor in the kitchen contains data tracking, so the kitchen staff can see at all times what daily required data is not filled in yet
- all data being stored on the hard disk and/or backup devices translates in a lower chance of lost/damaged archives
- not using paper reports translates as well in a de-cluttering of the record keeping storage and also in an improvement of kitchen hygiene - there are less chances of contaminating the paper with cooking materials during the recording process
- the budget tool keeps an accurate track of your orders, invoices and current budget situation
- correctly used, "CaterMan" will insure you pass any inspection, in concern of required records keeping
- in case of needing the data from a previous period, the data can be accessed very easily, not requiring "rummaging" through the archives
- the non-use of paper will decrease the space needed for archiving - less paper in the archives means, as well, a lower fire hazard
- as everything is done on the computer, there will be a significant decrease in the cost of paper, printing tonner and other desk consumables
Drawbacks of using "CaterMan":
- the staff need to be supportive and to embrace this type of data entering
- there should be a short training of authorized staff in using and setting up "CaterMan"
- in case of a power failure, if an alternative source is not present, the required data has to be recorded in writing, and will be introduced in the computer at a later time
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Visitors: ...retrieving data... |
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by Dorin
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