Why meal ordering should be part of your interactive patient system

There’s an unassuming feature on your interactive patient engagement system that can simultaneously boost patient satisfaction, staff efficiency, and safety compliance:

Meal ordering.

Getting food to patients is just the beginning. It’s about giving patients control and choice. Creating better outcomes. And freeing up time for staff to focus on doing what they do best.

How the meal ordering feature works

By integrating with your EHR and dietary system, SONIFI Health’s interactive system lets patients directly order meals, with the orders routing automatically to the kitchen—all without needing any nursing intervention.

On the in-room TV, patients can scroll through available food and beverage options using a similar experience to browsing content in a streaming app.

Patients will only see menu items that comply with any dietary restrictions they may have, such as low sodium, allergens, or liquid only. For patients who are NPO or have a scheduled surgery with fasting requirements, meal ordering will be restricted accordingly.

When placing the order, patients can select when they would like to have the meal delivered to their room. It’s simple to add or remove items from the cart, and the cart is validated to not exceed nutrition limits, such as ordering too much sodium.

All meal orders placed through the TV are routed through your dietary team’s workflow and systems, streamlining the process from start to finish.

How meal ordering on the ITV benefits your staff

Reduced call volume & room visits

By allowing patients to use the TV to browse the menus and place their own orders, your dietary and nursing staff no longer need to go into the patient’s room, or call them, to request their meal order.

SONIFI Health’s ITV and digital whiteboard can also include meal reminders so patients are aware of the function and place their orders without needing an additional nudge from staff.

The efficiencies gained from self-service orders instead of relying on staff involvement translate to savings on your operations and labor costs.

Plus, your nurses can get back to performing clinical tasks, and your dietary staff can focus on the most efficient food operations.

Workflow improvements

Adding the meal ordering feature to your interactive system complements—instead of disrupts—your existing dietary workflows, as well as reducing time-consuming manual steps.

The entire process from patient awareness to meal delivery is streamlined thanks to the automated menu validations, inventory management, and request routing directly to your food service staff to schedule, prepare, and fulfill.

The automations also free up your clinicians to focus on patient care instead of meal coordination.

Clinical risk reduction

Because the food and drink menus dynamically adjust based on each patient’s dietary restrictions and care plan, preventing non-compliant orders, regulatory issues, or allergic reactions and other adverse food events.

With this automatic diet validation, each meal order placed through your ITV system improves patient safety, supports your accreditation standards, and reduces the risk of errors, complications, and delays.

How meal ordering on the ITV benefits your patients

Familiarity & convenience

Ordering food on the TV feels familiar to patients, like ordering room service at a hotel or using a food app. Since most people are already comfortable using technology to order food, this feels natural and convenient—even for patients lying in bed.

With the simple navigation of the system and personalized menu options, the patient experience of ITV meal ordering is elevated. There’s nothing new to learn—no disruptive phone calls, apps, or passwords—making it easy and accessible for older or less tech-savvy patients.

Empowerment & control

They can see their options, descriptions, and nutrition info right on the TV and make selections based on their preferences and appetite.

Patients can place an order anytime, selecting what (and how much) they want, and when they’d like it delivered, all without needing to wait for staff to take their order.

This bit of choice helps patients feel involved and independent, even when they don’t have control over much else during their stay.

Better nutrition & faster recovery

When patients get to choose food they actually want, they’re more likely to eat it. Eating better, in turn, supports their strength, healing, and tolerance to medications.

And over time, this can help patients recover faster and avoid complications, which is good for both care quality and your hospital outcomes.

Higher patient satisfaction

Because ITV orders are more accurate and get to the kitchen faster, patients get their meals sooner and with fewer mistakes.

Paired with the convenience and control of the experience, it all makes patients feel better about their stay and the care they’re receiving.

Food quality and convenience are a big deal for patient satisfaction scores (like HCAHPS), which can impact hospital reimbursement.

ITV meal ordering is about more than food

Adding meal ordering to your interactive system is about improving experiences, efficiencies, satisfaction, and outcomes.

Giving patients easy and intuitive control ends up saving your staff time while reducing inefficiencies and errors.

When you modernize your meal ordering options, you can elevate both care quality and financial performance, one meal at a time.