Justifying the Cost

The Challenge

When considering purchasing a software program for the dietary department of a long-term care facility, the first hurdle to overcome is usually the cost of the program.

Typically, complete programs cost upwards of $6500. For smaller facilities, this is often viewed as very difficult to justify. The result is that either no software is purchased or a limited product is acquired which, in the end, becomes a throw-away expense since it is so limited in capability that it is of no use in a short time.

Where Lies the Expense?

The expense in the dietary department generally lies more in salaries and other overhead expenses than in the food. While it is appropriate to ensure that the best food is purchased at the best prices, it is even more important to ensure that human resources be optimized. Software can help you reduce wasted food but it can help much more in reducing the labor costs. Our human resources worksheet will help you calculate the cost of performing many of these tasks by hand.

What Will Reduce the Costs?

When you total up the costs, you may be surprised. But, will a software package significantly reduce the costs of preparing and feeding your residents?

Probably. It depends on the size of your facility and the software package you select.

You can somewhat reduce the cost of nourishment labels by the use of a word processing program. But, when you consider the time to do that updating, note that is likely any change to a resident's nourishment order also must be recorded at least two other places as well. A dietary program which allows you to enter it once will save much more time.

You should also note that not all packages will reduce your costs the same. The time and effort to create menus, recipes and foods in some software packages is so burdensome that, after a year of trying, facilities will abandon the package. That will not happen with DietMaster 2000. We have simplified the data entry you need to do so that you are up and running in a very short time. The data supplied with DietMaster 2000 is vastly more complete than any other package at any cost. Start-up savings can equal the cost of the package.

By using DietMaster 2000's Meal Card that prints up exactly what should be served to each resident for each meal, you can further reduce both serving time and serving errors. You might even be able to use less skilled staff since little or no decision-making is required at serving time.

Finally, DietMaster 2000 is lower in price than any other food-service package with similar capabilities. Our lease program can simplify the administrative paperwork and provide additional incentives. You cannot find a better bargain!

What About The Intangible Costs?

DietMaster's basic food-service package includes the ability to have Selective Menus. That means you can provide choices to those residents who are able to make those choices. That means greater resident satisfaction with the meals they receive since they can eat what they prefer.

By using a laser printer for all printing, DietMaster 2000 provides attractive menus, tray tickets and working reports. They are more readable than those provided by many other programs. No more "all-uppercase" printing. By using various fonts, the important information on the printed output is more easily read and fewer errors result.

No other dietary package includes the capability to organize the work in the kitchen. Work assignments and cleaning schedules are all integrated into the production so that each worker knows just what he or she needs to do.

And what about the impression created in the kitchen when they see how professionally and efficiently a dietary department can be run. From the dishwasher to the dietitian, everyone will see that their work is well organized and important.