Adding and Configuring Dining Areas

• About Dining Areas
  • How Do I Assign People to a Dining Area?
• Opening the Dining Areas Screen
  • Seeing the Menu Service Locations a Dining Area is Assigned To
  • When a Residence Area is Enabled as a Dining Area
• Adding a Dining Area
• Entering Start and End Times for Meal Services (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)
• Adding Tables and Seats
  • Sorting Tables in a Dining Area
• Entering Service Interval Increments (i.e., Waves) for a Dining Area 
  • Configure Advanced Ordering Settings for a Meal Delivery Area in the Touch Admin Site
• Editing an Existing Dining Area
• Deleting a Dining Area
• Sorting Dining Areas
• Video Tutorial - Dining Areas (6:02)

About Dining Areas

In the system, you assign resident and patient profiles to a dining area or a residence area enabled as a dining area for in-room service.

A dining area in turn is assigned to a menu service location (MSL), which in turn determines the menus that are available to the dining area. 

How Do I Assign People to a Dining Area?

Assigning people to a dining area is done via the People module in MealSuite. For instructions, see Assigning Dining Areas, Tables and Seats to Person.

Opening the Dining Areas Screen

1. Select Tools & Setup > Facility Builder. The Facility Builder screen appears.
2. Select the Dining Areas tab. The Dining Areas screen appears, listing existing dining areas and residence areas enabled as a dining areas for in-room service.
   
   

Seeing the Menu Service Location a Dining Area is Assigned To

When you open the Dining Areas screen (as per above steps), the menu service location(s) that a dining area is assigned to is displayed in the Menu Service Location column. The menu service location determines the menu that will be available for the dining area (see above for more information). To change the menu service location of a dining area, see Editing an Existing Dining Area below. 

When a Residence Area is Enabled as a Dining Area

Note that when a residence area is enabled as a dining area (to allow meal delivery to rooms), it appears on the Dining Areas screen in italics and preceded by a dash, along with the bed icon () in the Type column. 

Adding a Dining Area

1. Select Tools & Setup > Facility Builder. The Facility Builder screen appears.
2. Select the Dining Areas tab. The existing dining areas are listed.
3. Click the Add Area button. The New Dining Area slide-out panel appears.
   
   
   
   
4. In the Name field, enter the name of the dining area.
5. From the Menu Service Location field, select the menu service location (MSL) to assign the dining area to. The MSL determines the menus that are available to the dining area. If your MealSuite account only uses one MSL (i.e., the default MSL), then select it.
   
   
   
   
6. Complete the sections on the slide-out panel as per the instructions below:
   • Entering Start and End Times for Meal Services (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)
   • Adding Tables and Seats
     • Sorting Tables in a Dining Area
   • Entering Service Interval Increments (i.e., Waves) for a Dining Area

Entering Start and End Times for Meal Services (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

In the grid in the Active Meal Time section (screenshot below), select the check boxes for the meal periods (breakfast, lunch, dinner) that the dining area supports and enter the start and end times for each selected meal period. Click Save at the top right of the slide-out panel to apply your changes.

If there is an exception to a standard meal time, then complete the following steps:

1. Select the Add exceptions check box. The screen refreshes with a grid below the check box.
2. From the Day field, select the day or days in which the exception applies.
3. Select the check boxes of the meal periods (breakfast, lunch, dinner) that will have an exception.
4. Enter the start and end times of the selected meal period exceptions.
5. Click Save at the top right of the slide-out panel to apply your changes.
6. To add another exception, click the Add exception link and repeat steps 2 to 5 above.
7. Click Save to apply your changes.

Adding Tables and Seats

The Table Configuration Grid section (screenshot below) is where you enter the tables and seats for the dining area. Each row consists of the following fields:

• Table - enter the table number or name.
• Shape - select the shape of the table.
• Seats - select the number of seats for the table.

At a minimum, one table row needs to be entered for a dining area. When you click the Add Row link, the system will automatically populate the next sequential number in the Table field. Ensure to click Save at the top right of the slide-out panel to apply your changes. Also note that another means to add tables is via the Bulk Add button, which displays the Bulk Add Tables pop-up (below) for you to enter the numbers of tables, shape, and number of seats for each table.

Sorting Tables in a Dining Area

You can sort the tables in a dining area, which is reflected in the people reports that are used to deliver meals to residents in a dining area (see About the Delivery Sequence for Dining Areas, Tables, and Seats). To sort tables in a dining area, complete the following steps:

1. Select Tools & Setup > Facility Builder. The Facility Builder screen appears.
2. Select the Dining Areas tab. The existing dining areas are listed.
3. Click the dining area name for the tables you want to sort. 
4. Scroll to the Table Configuration Grid section. 
5. Hold the = icon of a table to be sorted, and drag and drop it to the appropriate spot in the table order.
   
   
    
6. Repeat the above steps until you have your desired table order.

Entering Service Interval Increments (i.e., Waves) for a Dining Area

If the dining area is to support orders coming from residents with the advanced ordering service type (either from the Touch app or the Portal app), or paid pickup and delivery orders from a POS station, then service interval increments (i.e., waves) need to be entered for the dining area to allow staff to manage in a staggered manner the number of orders being received. 

Service interval increments translate into pickup/delivery times on the front-end ordering apps (Touch app, POS, and Portal app), as per example screenshots below. 

Example scenario: Assume that a wave is set for 15 minutes for breakfast, with 2 meals served per wave. If the 9:30 to 9:45 AM wave receives two orders, then the 9:30 to 9:45 wave is not available as an option when the user is placing an order from a front-end app. 

 To configure the dining area to support service interval increments, complete the following steps:

1. With the dining area open, select the Advanced Ordering check box (first screenshot below). The slide-out panel refreshes with the Ordering Settings - Advanced Ordering & POS section (second screenshot below). 
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. In the Service interval increment row, select the service interval increment length for each meal period (Breakfast. Lunch, Dinner). For example, 15 minutes. 
   
   
3. In the Meal Served per Interval row, select how many meals will be served per wave for a meal period (Breakfast. Lunch, Dinner). For example, 2 meals for a wave. 
   
   
4. Click Save to apply your changes.

Configure Advanced Ordering Settings for a Meal Delivery Area in the Touch Admin Site

A dining area that exists in the MealSuite core system is represented as a meal delivery area in Touch Admin. There are certain advanced ordering settings that are applied to a meal delivery area in Touch Admin. See Configuring AO Settings in Touch Admin for instructions to do so. 

Editing an Existing Dining Area

To edit an existing dining area:

1. Select Tools & Setup > Facility Builder. The Facility Builder screen appears.
2. Select the Dining Areas tab. The existing dining areas are listed.
3. For the dining area to opened, click its name link in the Dining Area column. The slide-out panel specific to the dining area appears.
4. Rather than repeat the instructions here on editing a dining area, the same details can be found on the Adding a Dining Area above (start at step 4).
5. Click Save to apply your changes.

Deleting a Dining Area

A dining area can be deleted if no people are assigned to the dining area. A dining area can also be deleted if assigned to a person, but the person is archived in the system. To delete a dining area:

1. Select Tools & Setup > Facility Builder. The Facility Builder screen appears.
2. Select the Dining Areas tab. The existing dining areas are listed.
3. For the dining area to be deleted, click its gear icon and select Delete.
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Delete button to the confirmation message that appears. The dining area is deleted.
   
   Note 1: If people are assigned to the dining area, a message appears stating that the dining area cannot be deleted, and that you must first reassign those people to a different dining area.
   Note 2: Another means to delete the dining area is to open the dining area by clicking its link, and then clicking the Delete button.
   Note 3: A residence area that is enabled as a dining area does not present with the gear icon, and therefore cannot be deleted from the Dining Areas listing screen. This is to prevent the accidental deletion of residential areas. If it is required to delete a residential area, then this can be done via the Residences Builder tab (Tools & Setup > Facility Builder > Residences Builder tab). For more information see Removing Facility Unit Info. 

Sorting Dining Areas

The sort order of dining areas is reflected on the people reports that are used to deliver meals to residents in a dining area (see About the Delivery Sequence for Dining Areas), and also the dining area columns on a Kitchen Production Sheet. To sort the dining areas, complete the following steps:

1. Select Tools & Setup > Facility Builder. The Facility Builder screen appears.
2. Select the Dining Areas tab. The existing dining areas are listed.
3. Hold the = icon of a dining area to be sorted, and drag and drop it to the appropriate spot in the dining area order.
   
   
   
   
4. Repeat the above steps until you have your desired order.

Video Tutorial - Dining Areas (6:02)