Bedford Hospital provides a wide range of acute hospital services to the catchment population covering North and Mid Bedfordshire. The 50 strong catering team, lead by Peter Gillard, Catering Manager, produces an excellent and varied menu for its 560 patients and serves its 2,600 staff and hundreds of visitors everyday. Staff and visitor catering annually generates 1.2m, directing much-needed funds into essential services and facilities throughout the Hospital.

Needless to say, expectations on food safety standards at Bedford Hospital are high, and for a hospital with a strong public reputation and community role, a less than flawless food safety record is simply out of the question.

The time had come for a food safety systems overhaul at Bedford. Old hand-written temperature records had once served their purpose - but that was back when Bedford's catering arm was of modest size and food safety legislation was far less stringent. Catering Manager, Peter Gillard, was becoming hindered by cumbersome paper records, and found himself continually chasing up his team to perform the manual checks. Determined not to let an outdated system compromise the hospital's hard-earned standards of care, Peter Gillard approached Monika for advice.

Lifting the Weight of Paper-Ridden Processes

Monika developed a solution that integrated seamlessly into the hospital's existing food safety system. The fully automated Monika Temperature Monitoring System was precisely what Bedford Hospital were looking for.

The paperfree system continuously records the temperature of high risk cold stores, refrigerators and freezers. Readings are logged, and streamed to a PC in real time allowing the catering team to act quickly if an alarm occurs, helping them save stock before it spoils. The Monika system also wirelessly logs hand probed samples from delivery through to production, service and ward meal delivery. The catering team instantly embraced the new system, mastering what is now a meticulous patient meal delivery process:

• Temperature checks are logged during meal preparation
• Temperature of meals are logged before they leave the kitchen in heated trolleys for delivery to the wards, and again when they arrive.
• Hand probed readings are downloaded to Monika's fully integrated PC software for paperfree reporting and secure storage

Monika PC is used to generate detailed reports of cold storage records and hand probed samples. It enables staff to quickly retrieve archived readings to demonstrate due diligence and best practice. Before Monika was installed, hand-written records were difficult to manage, and lengthy NHS archiving rules meant shelves of paperwork to sift through - all of this is a thing of the past. Lyn Plumb, Administration Officer, was keen to commend the service and support she receives from Monika, saying: "Monika's aftersales support is second to none; they're easy to get in touch with, and always go the extra mile to help"

"We've won awards for excellence in food safety and hygiene standards - our Monika system has played a key part in achieving our success" Peter Gillard, Catering Manager

Freed from the frustration of awkward processes, Catering Manager Peter Gillard can now focus on developing and maintaining a world-class hospital catering division, thanks to Monika, which "really took the worry out of temperature record keeping". His work and foresight in implementing best practice has even been recognised through a number of food safety awards.

Bedford Hospital Catering Department have been awarded with the Heartbeat award- which recognises excellence in food safety and hygiene standards throughout the department. Peter Gillard is looking forward to another successful year and another Heartbeat award.

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