- Advanced Ordering (AO) Service Type: Item Selection Logic for a Personal Menu
- Reusing of Past Orders
- How Does a Production Report Determine what AO Items to Generate?
Advanced Ordering (AO) Service Type: Item Selection Logic for a Personal Menu
When a resident/patient's profile is set up with the Advanced Ordering service type for a meal period, the menu items available to serve on their personal menu are based on the person’s diet order, any diet restrictions set against the diet type, their allergens, and personal menu “do not serve” customizations.
The selection logic to determine items available on a personal menu is as follows:
- The system determines if a choice 1 item can be served.
- If the choice 1 item is a do-not-serve, the system looks sequentially at the next choice items, if available (i.e., choice 2, 3, 4, 5).
- If a next choice item cannot be served, or there is no next choice item, the system looks if a specific substitute is assigned (appears in green text).
- If a specific substitute is not assigned, the system looks if a fallback substitute is assigned (appears in purple text).
- If a substitute is not assigned, the system will look if an Also Available (AA) menu configured as a house fallback is scheduled. If so, then the system chooses an item from the AA menu (appears in orange text).
- If a menu item cannot be served after the selection logic is performed above, the system indicates in red font “Sub Needed [menu category name]”. You can either add a specific substitute (see Replacing Item with Specific Substitute) or a personal menu item (see Adding a Personal Menu Item).
Reusing of Past Orders
If a resident/patient with the advanced ordering service type misses placing an order, the system will reuse the same order from the previous same menu week/day/meal service, assuming that all the same menu items from the past order can still be served (some of the reasons a menu item may no longer be served include a diet order change, a diet restriction, a menu item change (including a menu item replacement), and a specific substitute in the personal menu).
The reuse of past orders by the system is illustrated in the following scenario:
- Assume there is a four-week menu and it is week 1 of the menu cycle.
- Jill places an advanced order for Wednesday dinner.
- Four weeks pass, and the menu cycles over to week 1 again.
- Jill does not place an order for Wednesday dinner.
- The system will reuse the same items that were ordered by Jill four weeks ago for Wednesday dinner.
When an order is reused, the personal menu displays the "reused" icon () for the items being reordered (first screenshot below). And if a tray menu ticket is generated, it displays "Reused order" and the "reused" icon (second screenshot below).
Note: When an item is from a reused order, it is only indicated as such in the core system (with the "reused order" icon), and not in the Touch app.
How Does a Production Report Determine what AO Items to Generate?
When running a production report, the following options are available to determine the items and their serving numbers in the production report:
Use Forecast (available only if the advanced ordering census is included in forecasting) - the report will include items and their serving numbers pulled from the forecasting worksheets associated with the selected days and meal periods/snack times. Note that items on the forecasting worksheet are determined by actual orders placed; for orders not placed, the worksheet includes items that are automatically selected based on the AO item selection logic.
Use Orders - When the Use Orders option is selected, the production report will include items for the actual orders placed by resident/patients.
For those resident/patients who have not yet placed an order, then the production report will include items that are automatically selected based on the AO item selection logic.
However, if you did not want the report to include items for those resident/patients who have not placed an order, then such items can be excluded by selecting the Exclude AO People who have not placed an order option.