Opening a Personal Menu and Working in the Personal Menu Screen – MealSuite

What is a Personal Menu?
- Scheduled Menus are used as a Base for Personal Menus
Opening a Personal Menu
About the Personal Menu Screen
Display Options
If the Resident/Patient is on the Advanced Ordering Service Type
If Resident/Patient is on a Fluid Type
"Substitute Needed" Text
Expand/Collaps e Meal Period Sections
Screen Listing of Personal Menu Customizations
Copying Customizations of Past Diet Orders to Current Diet Order
Printing a Personal Menu

What is a Personal Menu?

The system automatically generates a personal menu (i.e., private menu) for each resident/patient based on their assigned diet order and allergens. For example, if they are assigned the Fat Restricted diet type, then instead of being served a 4-ounce portion of BBQ Chicken Thighs, they are instead served a 3-ounce portion (determined via the extension grid for the menu item). For another example, if they are assigned the Easy to Chew texture type, then instead of being served the regular Steak Ribeye, they are served the MM5 Steak Ribeye.

A personal menu can be manually customized via the different personal menu customizations available, which are as follows:

A personal menu is not assigned to a resident/patient. Instead, a personal menu uses as its base the scheduled menus in a menu service location (MSL). A resident/patient is associated with the MSL via their assigned dining area (including a residence area enabled as a dining area for in-room service). A menu service location can be thought of as the “connecting piece”: the menu is assigned to the menu service location and the dining area is assigned to the menu service location.

Opening a Personal Menu

From the People listing screen, the personal menu for a person can be accessed by right-clicking the cogwheel in the Actions column and selecting Go to Personal Menu.

Another means to open the personal menu is by opening the person's profile and clicking the Personal Menu link at the top left of the panel.

The personal menu screen uses a week-at-a-glance (WaaG) view, which displays the menu items being served each day of the week for each meal period.

Navigating

The personal menu opens to the current week of the scheduled menu’s cycle, as indicated at the top right of the personal menu screen. You can view the different weeks in the menu cycle by selecting the desired week from the Week drop-down at top right of screen.

To view future weeks beyond what is available from the Week drop-down, hover your cursor over the Sunday header and keep clicking the forward arrow that appears to advance to the desired week. For example, if you have a new menu scheduled in the future, you can advance through the weeks until the start date of that menu to see the offerings for that menu.

Note that if advancing through the weeks by clicking the forward arrow on Sunday, you can also navigate back through the weeks by hovering your cursor over the Monday header and clicking the back arrow that appears until reaching the desired week.

Note that when a different menu is scheduled to be active in the future, the selected week will show the items of that future-scheduled menu. In addition, the Monday day header of the date the future-scheduled menu is to start is highlighted beige and has a calendar icon to indicate that it is a future-scheduled menu that is starting that day. Hovering your cursor over the calendar icon states New Menu: [Name].

If there is special event menu scheduled, then the menu items from the special event menu will be used for the scheduled day. When a special event is scheduled, the date header is highlighted orange with a calendar icon. Hovering your cursor over the icon displays the name of the special event menu.

Hide Diet Order

More viewing space can be accessed on the personal screen via the Hide Diet Order button.

Recommended Restricted Items

A diet type (e.g., Fat Restricted, Heart Healthy, etc.) can be configured to recommend that certain items be restricted (see Configuring Recommended Diet Restrictions for a Diet Type).

If a diet type is set up with recommended diet restrictions, then on the personal menu of a resident/patient with that diet type, any recommended restricted item is displayed with a warning icon (), as per screenshot below. Hovering your cursor over the icon displays the restriction type that is applied. If the recommended restricted item is the result of a therapeutic substitute being offered for the regular menu item (as opposed to a personal menu customization such as a personal menu item), then you are prompted to access the extension grid of that regular menu item and change the substitute being offered.

Display Options

The display options are available from the monitor icon at the top right to allow you to select what is displayed on the personal menu screens throughout your account (i.e., you change the display options via one personal menu screen, and those changes apply to all personal menu screens for all resident/patients in your account).

Including Also Available (AA) Menu Items on Personal Menu Screen

From the Display Options, you can select the Include Also Available check box to display menu items from an Also Available (AA) menu that is not a house fallback and scheduled at the same time and at same menu service location (MSL) of the resident's assigned dining area / residence area enabled as a dining area.

An AA menu is identified with an Also Available tag on the personal menu screen.

Note: When a personal menu item is added for a day/meal period/category, and that personal menu is set with the Instead of regular menu option, then the AA menu items for that day/meal period/category do not display.

Including Snack Menu Items on Personal Menu Screen

If the Include Snack check box is selected, then the snack service time sections (Snack AM, Snack PM, and Snack HS) appear on the personal menu screen.

Note, however, that for the snack items to appear in the snack service times sections, the following two conditions must be met:

The resident's assigned residence area must be enabled as a dining area.
and
A snack menu is scheduled at the same menu service location (MSL) of the residence area enabled as a dining area.

Showing Portion Size of Menu Items on Personal Menu Screen

From the Display Options, select the Show Portion Size check box to display the portion size beside each menu item on the personal menu screen.

Advanced Ordering Only - Displaying Ordered Items Only on Personal Menu Screen

If a resident/patient's service type is Advanced Ordering, then the Displayed Ordered Items Only option is available (screenshot below).

If the Displayed Ordered Items Only check box is selected, then the personal menu screen only shows items that have been ordered by the resident/patient (via the MealSuite Touch app or the Portal App). An ordered item appears with the green ordered icon, as per screenshot below.

Displaying Excluded Items due to Allergen or Do Not Serve (DNS) Customization on Personal Menu Screen

If an item on a personal menu is do not serve (DNS) due to an assigned allergen or a personal menu “do not serve” customization, then these items can be displayed onscreen by selecting the Display Excluded Items option. These items are displayed with a strikethrough to indicate they are DNS.

Note: A diet type/texture type cell on a menu item extension grid that is marked as DNS does not represent as DNS on a personal menu. This is because no menu item is being served for that diet type/texture type, and therefore there is nothing to populate on the personal menu (i.e., will be blank).

A DNS item due to an allergen displays with the following icon: . By hovering your cursor over the icon, the allergen that is assigned to the resident/patient appears.
A DNS item due to a personal menu “do not serve” customization displays with the following icon: . By hovering your cursor over the excluded item, the DNS reason appears (due to item, category or preference group set as DNS).

Note that if a resident/patient has the advanced ordering service type and chose to skip a meal, then the skipped item also presents with a strikethrough when the Display Excluded Items option is selected. By hovering your cursor over the excluded item, the reasons why it was skipped by the resident/patient appears.

Displaying the Lookup Name or Display Name of Menu Items on Personal Menu Screen

Selecting the Look Up Name option displays the look up name (i.e., system name) of the recipe.
Selecting the Display Name option displays the display name (i.e., user-friendly name) of the recipe.

Sorting By Menu Category or Choices on Personal Menu Screen

Selecting the Menu Category option displays items by their assigned menu category.

When viewing by menu categories, the means to determine what choice selection (e.g., choice 1, choice 2) an item is assigned to is as follows: For the desired item, hover over it and click its Edit icon (). The Edit Menu item modal appears (second screenshot below), which indicates the choice selection.
Selecting the Choices option displays items by their assigned choice. Note that viewing by choice offers a cleaner view, and many long-term care homes use this view.

Selecting the Menu Categories to Display on Personal Menu Screen

For each meal period, you can select what items to display according to menu categories the items are assigned to on the base menu.

Note: If a new menu category had been created for your account, then that new menu category is not automatically selected to display in the personal menu screen. You will need to select the new menu category from its respective meal period(s) in order for it to display on the personal menu screen with any of its assigned items.

"Substitute Needed" Text

If an item or items for a day/meal period/menu category on a resident/patient's personal menu cannot be served due to an allergen or the item being manually marked as DNS on the personal menu, then the text "Substitute Needed" will appear. For more information, and solutions to resolve "Substitute Needed" text, see the following article: Resolving "Substitute Needed" on Personal Menu and Reports.

If Resident/Patient is on the Advanced Ordering Service Type

How Items that have been Ordered Appear

If the person’s service type is advanced ordering, and an item has been ordered for a meal (via the MealSuite Touch app), then the item displays in the personal menu with a green selected icon.

How a Skipped Order Appears

If the person’s service type is advanced ordering, and they skip a meal period, then the text Refused Meal and the reason for refusal displays in each menu category of the meal period that was skipped.

How Item from a Reused Order Appears

For a resident/patient with the advanced ordering service type and who misses placing an order, the system will reuse the same order from the previous same menu week/day/meal service (see Reusing of Past Orders for more information).

When an order is reused by the system, it appears with the "reused order" icon (), as shown in 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.

If Resident/Patient is on a Fluid Type

For a resident/patient on a fluid type, and thickened fluid substitute items are being offered, then such items are identified with the Fluid Sub label, as per screenshot below.

Expand/Collapse Meal Period Sections

You can expand/collapse a meal period section by clicking its down arrow on the right of the meal period header.

By clicking the Manage Customizations button, the Manage Customizations slide-out panel appears, listing all customizations on a resident's/patient's personal menu.

Filtering List of Personal Menu Customizations

The following filters are available to narrow down what you want shown on the customization grid:

Customization Type - select the specific customizations to display.
Days - select the specific days to view any customizations for them.
Meals - select the specific meal periods/snack times to view any customizations for them.

Customizations Added from a Diet Intervention

Customizations can be added as the result of a diet intervention assigned to the resident/patient. If a customization is the result of an intervention, then the text "Added from Intervention" appears below the customization type tag.

Adding New Personal menu Customizations

The Add New button at top left of the slide-out panel allows you to add specific customizations; refer to the articles on the left for instructions on customizations that can be added via the Add New button.

Copying Customizations of Past Diet Orders to Current Diet Order

The system remembers a resident/patient's past diet orders and any personal menu customizations that were applied to them. This allows you to copy customizations of the past diet orders to the resident's currently assigned diet order. To do so, complete the following steps:

Open the person’s personal menu and click the Manage Customizations button. The Manage Customizations slide-out panel appears.
Click the Copy Past Diet Order Customizations button. The Copy Customization window appears.
From the Past Diet Orders column on the left, select the past diet order from which you want to copy its customizations. The customizations of the selected diet order appear on the right.
From the customizations list on the right, clear or select the check boxes of the customizations you want to copy.
Click the Copy Selected Customizations to Current Diet Order. The customizations from the resident's past diet order are copied to the resident's current diet order.

Printing a Personal Menu

With the personal menu of a resident open, click the Print button at top right corner, which navigates you to People Reports screen, where that single resident is automatically selected for you to print their personal menu report.

The report that can print the resident's personal menu depends on the resident's service type:

For a resident with the table select service type, print their personal menu via the Person-Specific Select Menu report. When you run the Person-Specific Select Menu report, ensure that all menu categories are selected.
For a resident with the advance ordering service type, print their personal menu via the Person-Specific Select Menu Report or the Tray Menu Tickets Report. If running the Person-Specific Select Menu report, ensure that all menu categories are selected.
For a resident with the non-select service type, print their personal menu via Tray Menu Tickets Report.