For those who know Patrick LaMont, it’s always about maximizing the patient experience. The Senior Director of Food & Nutrition at Brookdale Hospital & Medical Center, in Brooklyn, NY which is a part of the new system OBH (One Brooklyn Health) understands the importance of quality foodservice.
At Brookdale patients, families, doctors, and staff are treated like family by LaMont and his team. The Brooklyn, NY hospital’s dining facility recently underwent a massive upgrade: a process that took “a lot of blood, sweat, and tears,” noted the veteran healthcare dining executive. The highlights of the Lamont led update include a much talked about redesigned kitchen that features a state of the industry food delivery system. Brookdale has also reinvented its approach to the retail side of its Grab-N-Go operation with updated POS System as well as a new vending supply partner (Gilly’s) that share LaMont’s vision for bringing customer service to a new level.
With an MBA in hospital administration, LaMont is no stranger to the world of healthcare. Before his recent work at Brookdale, he lived in Doha, Qatar for over three years, assisting in the building and design of a 550-bed women’s and children’s hospital. He returned to the US to be with his family, receiving job offers in various US cities upon his return. In the end, he decided on Brookdale, and he began his position there in 2013.
“Coming back home, I thought I could make a difference,” he said. When LaMont started at Brookdale, the hospital’s kitchen was supported by a first-generation delivery system, and its cook-chill system was outdated. “The quality of food was there, but the rethermalization of the food diminished the quality immensely,” he said. Immediately, LaMont acted, creating a new vision and list of goals that evolved into a 10-year-long journey of upgrading Brookdale’s dining service to one of the nation’s foremost healthcare dining operations.
One of the highlights of the hospital’s upgrade is the addition of a Burlodge meal delivery system. “The Burlodge RTS CT retherm self-contained hot and cold tray delivery cart checked all of the boxes to enable us to accomplish our goals. I am convinced that it would provide the best solution for Brookdale because it would allow our team to deliver hot foods hot and cold foods cold.” LaMont worked alongside Paul Sico of Burlodge, and he consulted the hospital’s administration, nurses, and dietary employees to create a system that would work for everyone.
The RTS (Ready to Serve) CT retherm self-contained cart features built-in HACCP monitoring, that enables the Brookdale staff to watch and control via the advanced, remote B-Cloud system. Because the kitchen is a cook-chill facility, LaMont explained that he and his team “took advantage” of the ease the Burlodge system’s technology would provide.
LaMont spoke highly of Burlodge, explaining that through his involvement with the Association for Healthcare Foodservice (AHF) he has been able to “cultivate relationships, not just partnerships” with various companies, including Burlodge that understand the nuances of healthcare dining. These relationships made it “so much easier to accomplish Brookdale’s goals and vision,” as they allowed LaMont and his team to work one-on-one with companies.
The new-and-improved facility also worked with JC Elite Construction to redesign all their pantries both centralized and decentralized got a facelift, vending supplier Gilly Vending, and software company M.M. Hayes helped to improve their dated POS system. The previous system was unable to take credit cards or provide payroll deductions, and this had an impact on overall sales, LaMont said. After just two weeks of the M.M. Hayes system, sales have grown promisingly thus far about 7.5 to 10%. “With our new ability to take credit cards, we expect sales to increase by 20%.”
Even after 10 years of hard work, LaMont is still looking for ways to improve Brookdale’s dining facility. He is grateful for his “dedicated and willing” team who has helped throughout the upgrade, and he continues to work on and set goals to make the Brookdale dining experience safe and exceeding the expectations of our patients, and something his employees can be proud of.
“Our next objective is to redesign the tray line and make it more user-friendly and efficient, so we need to review the ergonomics component,” he said, explaining that he’d like to reach approximately six trays per minute. In addition, LaMont is looking forward to working with more technology, including AI (Artificial Intelligence), to give Brookdale’s facility a “competitive advantage.”
“The possibilities are endless, and the sky’s the limit,” he said, looking towards the future of top-notch customer and patient experience. Once again, Patrick LaMont has reset the standard for the high-quality healthcare foodservice with his unmatched passion to get it right.
