Dietitian - Kapaa

Job Description:

This position is located in the Food & Nutrition Services Unit of Hilo Medical Center, an acute and long-term care facility located on the island of Hawaii, serving as the Regional Center, which also includes Kau Hospital and Hale Hoola Hamakua.

The function of the Food & Nutrition Services Unit is to provide all food service to patients and staff of the hospital.

The Food & Nutrition Services Unit receives, stores and inventories food supplies, plans menus and prepares food, assesses the nutritional aspect of patient care and patient education, and prepares necessary reports relating to food service.

A selective menu system has been adopted in the department.

The primary purpose of this position is to provide professional dietetic services to individual patients and manages the clinical dietary operations of the facility.

The position plans, organizes, directs and supervises clinical staff; implements policies and procedures to assure that the dietetic services meet the daily nutritional, therapeutic and special dietary needs of the patients.

Responsibilities:Clinical Responsibilities:

• Ensures that the needs of patients/residents in the acute, behavioral health, long term care, and outpatient settings are met through regular and frequent physician/clinical staff collaboration and patient interaction and education.

• Represents the organization and Department as an ambassador of clinical patient care; uses each and every patient interaction as an opportunity to promote the services and products offered by FANS and the organization.

• Consults with physicians and clinical staff on patient/resident diet orders.

• Interviews patients to obtain diet history, patient eating habits and patterns, and any cultural and socioeconomic and religious information that influence their food preferences.

• Analyzes physicians diet orders and recommendations, and determines the best method through which their food preferences and diet restrictions may be met via meals.

• Calculate special diets as ordered (e.g., diabetic, low calories, low sodium, cholesterol, etc.).

• Educates patients on the diet restrictions that may have been established by their physician, and the reasons that the FANS Unit may not be able to comply with all of their dietary requests, including the possible interaction of medication and/or their disease process with regard to food choices.

• Provides education to patients and their family members on their transition from the hospital to home, with regard to nutritional/dietary requirements.

• Provides direction where necessary to the employees of the Clinical Arm of the unit with regard to patient education.

• Monitors patients progress and updates their dietary plan as necessary; participates as a member of the multidisciplinary team on the patients diet, progress, and discharge planning, Enters information into the patients electronic medical record to ensure that it is up to date with regard to the patients dietary progress.

Meal Preparation:

• Assists with the development of the organizations menu cycle in collaboration with the Institutional Food Service Manager IV.

• Assists with the preparation of the master menu for regular and special diets in collaboration with the Institutional Food Services Manager IV, using the USDAs Dietary Guidelines for Americans (latest edition), Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) and the Hawaii Dietetics Associations Hawaii Health Food Guide as references.

• Provides input into serving size(s) and portion control for patients, and makes modifications as necessary to meet dietary standards.

• Oversees and provides direction on the creation of nutritional care plans for patients (in addition to creating plans) within the Unit and manages and coordinates the activities of the Dietitians and Assistant to the Dietitians who provide nutritional dietary services to patients.

• Assists the Institutional Food Services Manager IV with catered menu planning upon request.

• Provides the nutritional value of each item on the menu at each meal and posts those nutritional values on a bulletin board in the organizations cafeteria for public review.

Regulatory Requirements of Supplies and Storeroom:

• Monitors supplies to ensure that they are labeled appropriately and have not expired in the refrigerator, freezer, pantry, storeroom and chemical room.

• Shares the responsibility with the Institution Food Service Manager IV for the development and monitoring of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Program to ensure that the Unit is meeting regulatory requirements.

• Monitors the preparation and distribution of food, as needed.

• Monitors cleaning procedures, dishwashing, pot washing and sanitizing to ensure that the proper precautions to guard against the transmission of foodborne illnesses have been taken.

• Monitors temperatures of refrigerators, freezers, and dishwasher to ensure that appropriate temperatures are being met.

• Monitors light, ventilation and humidity to control and prevent moisture, condensation and mold/mildew growth.

• Reviews safety procedures (What to do in care of fire, hazardous materials spills, etc.) with staff, actively participates in drills, and completes documentation to meet regulatory requirements.

• Actively participates in all CMS, Joint Commission, OSHA, Department of Health and Hawaii County Fire Department surveys/inspections and any other survey/inspection activity that may occur by regulatory agencies not mentioned herein.

Administrative & Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Ensures that the clinical aspects of the FANS Unit are operating optimally by employing active management control and regular interaction with staff.

• Plans, prepares, and posts work schedules for, and assigns tasks to, all Dietitians (known as the Clinical Arm of the Unit) according to the appropriate collective bargaining unit contracts.

• Reviews the need, and provides staff coverage when necessary, for employees of the Clinical Arm who may be away from the office on any kind of leave of absence with or without pay.

• Manages, directs and handles the daily work and operations of the clinical Arm of the unit including but not limited to job description reviews, hiring, orientation, training, reviewing/signing timesheets and temporary assignment forms, completion of performance appraisal summaries, disciplinary actions, grievances and reassignments of duties where necessary.

• Develops prospective candidate interview questions, appoints individuals to the interview panel, arranges and conducts interviews, summarizes and evaluates candidates, make recommendations for selection, and announces final appointment, when appropriate.

• Handle employees complaints and work related problems.

• Establishes expectations, goals and objectives of the Clinical Arm of the unit.

• Develops policies and procedures for the Unit to ensure compliance with regulatory agencies as well as to provide a standard operating procedure to employees working within the FANS Unit.

• Ensures that the work and operations of the Clinical Arm is performed in accordance with County, State and Federal agency regulations, including but not limited to the Joint Commission (JC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Health (DOH), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

• Standardizes work practices (minimizes variation) to ensure that tasks are being done in accordance with the organizations policies and procedures.

• Takes active managerial control of the Unit by establishing a monitoring program that ensures (through managerial observation and work product review) that each employee meets his/her minimum performance requirements in their respective job classification.

• Conducts quarterly employee in-services for all employee of the FANS Unit on relevant topics such as diets, sanitation, food safety, preparation, etc.

Miscellaneous Duties:

• Reports

• Checks and prepares overtime report and forwards it to the Hospital systems Services Director or designee.

• Meets on a weekly basis with the Hospital systems Services Director to provide status updates on the Clinical Arm of FANS and the Unit as a whole.

• Shares the responsibility with the Institution Food Service Manager IV for the preparation of the yearly inventory report of kitchen equipment and food supplies to Materials Management at the end of each fiscal year.

• Shares the responsibility with the Institution Food Service Manager IV for the development and submission of the annual operational budget, capital budget and CIP budget when necessary.

• Quality Assurance Program

• Shares the responsibility with the Institution Food Service Manager IV for dietary services; reviews and evaluates dietary procedures and problems; provides corrective actions to improve patient care and the delivery and production of food to all patients, residents, employees and visitors.

• Prepares online purchase requisitions, purchase requests, vendor file builds, emergency procurement requests and capital requisition forms for the purchase/replacement of supplies, equipment and uniforms as needed.

• Shares the responsibility with the Institution Food Service Manager IV for the review of equipment maintenance within the Unit to ensure that the preventive maintenance schedule and/or corrective maintenance is being done to keep all equipment in safe, operable condition. Initiates repair requisition(s), and/or equipment replacement when necessary.

• Shares the responsibility with the Institution Food Service Manager IV for checking food handling techniques and work habits to ensure that they are within safe food handling procedures.

• Provides consultative services for Kau Hospital and Hale Hoola Hamakua.

• Participates and attends committee meetings as assigned by the Executive Manager.

• Maintains competencies through continuing education, in-services and/or unit/hospital competencies within appropriate time frame.

• Complies with mandatory in-service requirements, e.g., patient rights, crisis prevention, annual mandatory health and safety, etc.

• Maintains strictest confidentiality of all facility and facility employee/patient information.

• Follows all applicable rules, policies, laws, regulations and accreditation requirements.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

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